Dec. 24, 1885] 



NATURE 



187 



population of Akhal-tekke consists of Tekke-Turcomans (8400 

 kihitkas, about 42,000 souls), with some 1160 Persians and 

 Tartars, 930 Armenians, and 340 Russians, without families. 

 Askabad, the chief town of this district, has already an important 

 trade. The inhabitants of the Krasnovodsk and Manghishlak 

 districts, on the contrary, are nearly all nomads, and their 

 chief towns, Krasnovodsk and Alexandrovsk, are miserable 

 hamlets with less than 400 inhabitants each. The oasis 

 of Merv, with its 32,000 kibitkas, is well peopled. The 

 bazaars of the chief town are very animated, 8000 to 10,000 

 people gathering there twice a week. .Since 1785, when the 

 Sultan-bend dam on the Murghab was destroyed by the Ameer 

 Murad Khan, the area of the oasis has much diminished, and it 

 occupies now only a length of 160 miles, and a width of some 

 13 miles. The town Bairam-kala; was abandoned for want of 

 water. The Tekke Turcomans, who have inhabited the oasis 

 since 1857, when they drove away the Saryks, are divided into 

 two stems, the Okhtamyshs and the Tokhtamyshs. The richer 

 of them live in felt tents, while the poorer ones make huts of 

 clay of the same shape as the felt tents. These settlements and 

 villages are not permanent, and may be changed at the first 

 signal of alarm. In fact the population is too numerous for 

 the watered area. As to the fertile oasis of Tejen, on the 

 Heri-rud, it was formerly visited only in the summer. It has 

 now some 7500 Tekke inhabitants, who have immigrated 

 from Merv, Akhal, and Atek. 



Mr. Shipley, the American Consul at Auckland, New 

 Zealand, reports to the State Department at Washington, the 

 following facts about a new volcano in the Pacific Ocean : — " At 

 daylight on October 13 we observed dense volumes of steam and 

 smoke clouds ascending. We sailed sufficiently near to see that 

 it was a submarine volcanic eruption. Considering that it was 

 not prudent to approach any nearer that night, we lay to until 

 morning. We then approached to about a distance of two 

 miles. I have not words to express my wonder and surprise at 

 its changing splendour. Eruptions take place every one or two 

 minutes, changing in appearance every second, like a dissolving 

 view. I can only say that it was one of the most awfully grand 

 sights I ever witnessed on the high seas. As near as I was able 

 to calculate the position of the volcano, it is about fourteen miles 

 from the island of Honga Tonga. As to the size of the island 

 thrown up, I am unable to state it correc'ly, there being so much 

 steam and cloud hanging over it ; but I judge it to be at least 

 two or three miles long, and 60 feet high, in lat. 20° 21' S., 

 long. 175° 28' W." 



THE PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

 n^HE yearly meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences took 

 place in the large hall of the Institut on December 2. 

 Rear- Admiral Julien de la Graviere was in the chair. He read 

 a short paper summarising the lloges of eight members who died 

 during the past twelve months. This number is unusually large 

 in a body of sixty-si.\. 



M. Bertrand delivered two addresses on M. Lagourneria, a 

 geometer, and M. Combes, an engineer, who died some years 

 ago, after having enjoyed the academical honours during many 

 years. 



The number of prizes delivered by the Academy is increasing 

 yearly, not less than thirty-three being offered for competition 

 in l886. The total of the sums to be awarded is more than 

 3000/., exclusive of some of which the value is to be deter- 

 mined accoiding to the merits of competitors, and the Breant 

 Prize for a cure for cholera. Dr. Ferran was not even men- 

 tioned in the verdict, and the interest of the 4000/. was given 

 to several writers on the etiology of cholera. 



Some of the prizes for 1S85 were not awarded, for want of 

 competition, although, except a very few, they are open to every 

 nation, and memoirs can be written in any language as well as 

 in French. A large number of prizes were not delivered for 

 want of merit in the contributions sent. .Some of them were 

 awarded to scientihc writers who have published volumes on 

 topics connected with the subject-matters. Of this last class we 

 may mention, inler alia, " Memoire sur la Marche et I'Extension 

 du Cholera Asiatique des Indes Orientales," &c., by Dr. Mahe, 

 representing France at Constantinople; "Contributions a 

 I'Etude de la Fievre Typhoide," by Dr. Pietro Santo ; " Statis- 

 tique de ITndustrie minerale et des Appareils 3. Vapeuren France 

 et en Algerie," by M. Keller ; " Contributions a I'Etude statis- 

 tique du Suicide en France," by Dr. Jules Socquet ; " Hisloire 



de I'ancienne Academic de Marine de Brest," by M. Donneaud 

 du Plan, Librarian of the Navy at Dieppe. 



Amongst the most important prizes awarded we notice the 

 following : — 



M. Amsler Laffon, of Shaffhouse, for his instrument for polar 

 planimetry, as presented by Mr. Scott Russell to the Institution 

 of Naval Architects in 1880 (Monthyon Medallist for Mechanical 

 Arts). 



M. CoUadon, of Geneva, for the application of compressed 

 air as a motive power in tunnelling Mont Cenis (Fourneyron 

 Medallist). 



M. ThoUon, for mapping the solar spectrum in the Bischoffs- 

 heim Observatory, Nice (Lalandc). 



Dr. Sporer, of the Potsdam Astro-Physic.il Observatory, for 

 his studies on solar spots (Voltz). 



Dr. Edlund, member of the Academy of Sciences of Stock- 

 holm, for his memoir on the origin of electrical tension of the 

 atmosphere. He considers this tension to be produced by the 

 rotation of the earth, which is a magnet. The soil being made 

 negative, the atmosphere becomes positive by induction. The 

 difference of tension resulting from his calculations is 223 volts 

 per kilometre altitude. No less than twelve memoirs were sent 

 — five in French, four in German, and three in English (Boydron 

 Prize). The memoir of Dr. Edlund had been already printed 

 and published. 



M. Gernez, for his discoveries in rapid solidification of super- 

 saturated liquids. 



M. Halphen, a major in the French Artillery, took the Petit 

 d'Ormay Prize for the ensemble of his mathematical work and 

 principally the solution of the following problem : — Trouver 

 les equations differentielles qui se reproduisent par une substitu- 

 tion lineaire. 



The Monthyon Prize for discoveries in connection with un- 

 healthy arts has been given to M. Chamberland, chief assistant 

 ofM. Pasteur, who invented a filter in china ware which stops 

 even microbes. 



The Government Prize was given to M. Joannes Chatin for 

 his study of the sensation organs of invertebrate animals. 



The Cuvier Medallist for this year is Prof Van Beneden, 

 of the Louvain University, for half a century of work in 

 physiology. 



THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE 



T'^HE volume of Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 

 ■'• for 1 884 was issued to the members in M.ay of the present 

 year. It is edited by Dr. Hector, and contains fifty-five memoirs, 

 which, read before the various affiliated societies, have been 

 deemed worthy, by the Governors of the Institute, of publica- 

 tion. While the papers on biological subjects occupy three- 

 fourths of the space devoted to the transactions, those on geo- 

 logy are but few in number. Among the more important of the 

 zoological memoirs maybe mentioned the following: — "De- 

 scriptions of New Zealand Micro-Lepidopteia," by E. Meyrick 

 (pp. 68-149). In continuation of his previous memoirs we 

 have here full details and an analysis of the following families : — 

 Scopariadpe ; while no species of this family is common to New 

 Zealand and Australia, the author has included in his memoir 

 descriptions of the known Australian species of the genera 

 Scoparia, Tetraprosopus and Xeroscopa. Fifty-eight species of 

 the first and sixteen species of the last genus are described. 

 Pyralidse : Hydrocampidse ; these families are each represented 

 by a single species, neither of which is, in a strict sense, indi- 

 genous, Asopia farinalis being introduced from Europe. The 

 representative of the latter family, Hygratila nitens (Butl.), 

 being regarded as a recent migrant from south-east Australia. 

 Pterophoridoe ; eleven species are described : one is closely 

 allied to a European form, one is Australian ; the other nine are 

 all endemic. In a supplement a number of additions to the 

 previously-published list of species of Crambid.ie and Tortricidse 

 are described. "Further Notes on Coccidie," by W. M. Mas- 

 kell. The author comments on our notice this time last year of 

 the roughness of the plates in Vol. XVI. While we agree with 

 him that all biologists are not artists, yet we venture to think 

 that it is not too much to expect that there should be one artist 

 at Wellington who could execute plates in a style worthy not 

 only of the New Zealand Institute, but in keeping with the 

 excellent typography of the volume. Thus, the very " letter- 

 ing " of the plates in the present volume is not only bad, but mis- 

 leading. Vol. XIV. being misprinted for Vol. XVII., and Plate 



