Feb. 1 1, i886j 



NA TURE 



349 



A Swedish naturalist has collected some remarkable statis- 

 tics of the iniportant part natural history and certain other 

 branches of science have played in the names assumed by the 

 Swedish nobility when elevated to that rank. As regards 

 zoology, five names begin with Lejon (lion), and six with the 

 German equivalent Lowen, Lewen, or Len. Only one name 

 begins with Orn (eagle), but six with the German form, Adler. 

 The mythical animals Grip (griffin) and Drake (dragon) have 

 been appropriated by six and three families respectively. Of 

 other animals and birds of prey, Tiger (tiger) is rejiresented by 

 four families, Ulf (wolf) by three, Bjdrn (bear) by three, Falk 

 (falcon) by three, Geijer (hawk) by two, and Raf (fox) by one. 

 There are, further, two families whose names begin with Oxe 

 (ox), one with Hast (horse), two with Elg (elk), one with Hjort 

 (stag), one with Rilamb (doe), one with Get (goat), one with 

 Svin (swine), one with Bafver (beaver), one with Dufva (dove), 

 one with Reiher (heron), one with Stork, one with Gadda 

 (pike), three with Riid (carp), one with Odla (lizard), and one 

 with Bramo (gadfly). Many more names have been taken from 

 trees and plants. Thus, fourteen begin with Lilje (lily) and 

 Ros (rose) respectively, eleven with Lager (laurel), nine with 

 Ceder (cedar), seven with Ek (oak), six with Lind (lime), and 

 soon. If we turn to astronomy, numerous stars form the pre- 

 fixes of names, but in no case the sun or the moon. Fourteen 

 begin, and eleven end, with Stjerna (star). It is mentioned 

 that the famous name, Oxenstjerna, is a corruption of the Ger- 

 man word Stirn (forehead), which is proved by the family 

 escutcheon, and is not derived from the above word. 



A coRREsroNDENT gives some interesting particulars to a 

 Norwegian journal of the habits of herring jumping out of the 

 water when frightened. He states that he h>s observed whole 

 shoals of this fish, in their anxiety to escape when pursued by 

 whales, piled up above the surface of the sea to a height of from 

 three to six feet. On one occasion the fish formed a mass 

 even with the top of the mast of a fishing-boat, viz. about 

 fifteen feet, and had part of the same fallen into the boat it 

 would doubtless have sunk. 



The following are the results of a very elaborate mathematical 

 inquiry which Prof. N. Joukowsky has recently made into the 

 laws of motion of a solid body having hollows filled up wiih a 

 homogeneous liquid. Various shapes of hollows filled with 

 liquid have been considered, as also the case of a vortex-motion 

 of the liquid having interior friction. Some phenomena of the 

 interior motion of the liquid itself, in the case of the solid body 

 when caused to rotate, were verified by experiments which 

 proved conformable to the theory ; they have shown that in 

 a body whose rotation-velocity is decreasing from its surface to 

 its centre [e.g. a glass sphere filled with water, and which is 

 brought into motion), the molecules flow from the poles to the 

 equator, and vice versa where, the rotation being suddenly 

 stopped, the speed of rotation is on the decrease from the centre 

 to the circumference. The general conclusion of the inquiry is, 

 that if we have a hollow body filled with a liquid, and this 

 system be brought into motion, its motion will tend to reach a 

 limit characterised by one of the chief axes of inertia of the body 

 taking the direction of the chief momentum of the communi- 

 cated motion, and the whole system will rotate around this axis 

 as a single body — the speed of rotation being constant, and equal 

 to the quotient obtain 'd from the division of the force applied 

 by the momentum of inertia of the system with regard to this 

 axis. M. Joukowsky asks, — Does it not explain the circum- 

 stance that our planets, notwithstanding the variety of their 

 occasional primary velocities, all rotate around their axes of 

 inertia? 



It is stated in Paris that the telegraph now extends to Langson 

 in Tonquin, on the Chinese border. As already mentioned in 

 Nature, on the Chinese side the telegraph was carried during 



the recent military operations in Tonquin from Canton to Lung- 

 chow, about thirty miles from Langson. Hence, with the 

 exception of this short gap of thirty miles, the telegraph extends 

 in an unbroken line from Saigon in the south of the Indo-Chinese 

 peninsula to Pekin, where five years ago there was no telegraph 

 whatever. The rapidity with which, since 1881, it has spread 

 all over China, and has come into general use, is one of the 

 wonders of modern days. 



The " binding " effect of intense cold and a fierce wind on 

 snow is remarkably illustrated by a photograph, in Science, of a 

 large mass of snow formed on one side of a telegraph pole (at 

 the top) near the summit of Mount Washington. Lieut. Schwatka 

 notes this in relation to the building of snow houses by the 

 Eskimo. While the cohesion of snow in our latitudes (and the 

 early Arctic snow) is of a plastic, wet, or " pasty " nature, the _ 

 snow used in building, packed by high wind and cold, is dry and 

 almost stone-like. Cutting a thin portion gives a shower of fine 

 powder as from loaf-sugar. Blocks of this snow ring like a well- 

 burnt brick, or a bar of suspended steel struck with the hand. 

 Lieut. Schwatka remembers a block rolling down hill 15 or 20 

 feet, and says, "I doubt if a rolling guitar would have given 

 forth many more confused musical tones than the bumping block 

 as it struck and bounded down the hard stone-like bank of 

 snow." The least quantity of ice in the snow, however, makes 

 it more or less worthless for building. To produce this snow, it 

 may not be necessary that the wind and the low temperature 

 have occurred together, but both must have happened before the 

 Eskimo will use the snow for building. 



A STRONG shock of earthquake took place in the Island of 

 Lemnos in the night of January 17-18. There was no subter- 

 ranean noise. 



An earthquake is reported from Jaska and Samobor (Croatia) 

 on January 23. Two violent shocks were felt at 9.35 a.m. on 

 that day. No considerable damage was done, although many 

 walls show fissures. 



An International Exhibition will be held at Madrid in 

 1S88. 



The Calcutta Correspondent of the Times telegraphs, under 

 date the 7th inst., that Mr. Ney Elias, the new British Consul 

 to Kashgar, has made a successful journey down the Upper 

 Oxus, through Shignan and Koshan, to Badakshan. He was 

 everywhere well received. 



The Calcutta En^lisliman states that, shortly after the last 

 cyclone suddenly burst over Madras, the local Government 

 wrote 10 the Government of India, suggesting that telegraphic 

 communication should be established between Madras and 

 either Sumatra or the Nicobars for the despatch of storm- 

 warnings. The Indian Government, however, considers that 

 the value of meteorological stations in these localities in relation 

 to the Storm Signal Service on the Madras coast is by no means 

 established. Experience has shown that the storms which 

 reach Madras are in most cases formed on the east or the north- 

 east coast of Ceylon, and that therefore telegrams from the 

 opposite side of the bay would give little or no help in forecast- 

 ing the approach of storms. The Government of India, there- 

 fore, suggests that the telegraphic reports from Pondicherry and 

 Negapatam, as well as fro.n Jaffna and Trincomalee in Ceylon, 

 would be more likely to give the required information. 



A remarkably strong .\rtesian spring has been struck, at a 

 depth of 155 feet below the stu-face, at Alnwick, in a boring 

 which the Local Board are having sunk for the supply of the 

 town. This spring, which was met with in a bed of sandstone, 

 rises to no less than 30 feet above the surface, and is flowing 

 with increasing volume at the rate of 115,000 gallons per diem. 

 The site of this boring is at an elevation of some 200 feet above 

 the level of the town, from which it is about two miles distant 



