424 



NA TURE 



\_March 4, 1886 



M. Chevreul caught a cold a few days ago, and some 

 anxiety was entertained for his health, owing to his great age 

 rather than to the gravity of the indisposition. We are glad 

 to learn that he has since improved. His loist birthday will 

 take place on August 31 next. 



It is probable that the Observatory of Montsouris will be dis- 

 continued as an independent establishment. M. Marie-Davy 

 will be placed on the retired list, and the credits paid in support 

 of Montsouris suppressed entirely. It will become the head- 

 quarters of the Central Bureau of French Meteorology. 



The Colonies and India states that it is the intention of Mr. 

 Morris, on leaving Jamaica to take up his appointment at Kew, 

 to make a tour of the West India Islands for the purpose of 

 becoming personally acquainted with their circumstances and 

 resources, and with the view of being able afterwards to give 

 them advice and assistance in thedevelopment of new industries. 

 Several of the islands have already been visited by him, but it 

 is said to be his intention to make now a careful study of their 

 circumstances, to be afterwards embodied in a special report, or 

 utilised in directing the resources of Kew to the amelioration and 

 improvement of West Indian industries. 



At the Scottish Geographical Society on Tuesday afternoon, 

 March 9, at 4 o'clock, a paper will be read by Prof. James 

 Geikie, F.R.S., Vice-President of the Society, entitled "The 

 Evolution of Europe. " 



The Department of Public Works in Japan having recently 

 been abolished as a separate office of State, much interest is 

 felt, especially by scientific Europeans in the Japanese service, 

 as to the future fate of the Imperial College of Engineering, 

 which, since its establishment, has been under the control of the 

 Minister of Public Works. It has been attached now to the 

 Education Department, but it is uncertain whether it will re- 

 main a separate College or will be incoporated with the Univer- 

 sity of Tokio. In the latter case a considerable readjustment of 

 the staff would take place, as the University has already pro- 

 fessors of most of the .subjects taught at the Engineering Col- 

 lege, and a number of holders of Chairs of scientific subjects 

 would be redundant. Commenting on this subject, the Japan 

 Mail says that graduates of the College are found doing useful 

 work in every part of the empire, and so high is the esteem in 

 which they are held that to have been educated there is a certain 

 passport to employment. It possesses the handsomest buildings 

 and the most perfectly-equipped laboratories and museums of 

 any educational institution in Japan, the University not ex- 

 cepted, and hence it would be a pity to destroy the individu- 

 ality of an institution which has been so markedly successful. 

 Accordingly it is suggested that the wisest plan would be to 

 affiliate it to the University, and to transfer the engineering 

 classes of the latter to its care. If any Japanese institution 

 may be said to be British, the Engineering College may be said 

 to be so from its foimdation until the present moment. Its 

 Chairs have all been held by English men of science, and are 

 still held by them. 



The administration of the Ethnological Section of the Royal 

 Museum at Berlin has commenced the publication of a periodical 

 having for its object the description of the contents and additions 

 to the collection. It is published by Spemann of Berlin. The 

 first number contains an account of Dr. Nachtigal's ethnological 

 collections, of those from Easter Island, a description of the 

 burials of the Pelew Islands by Herr Kubary, also one of the 

 ourney of the collector, Herr Rohde, in Matto Grosso and the 

 Indian tribes of this region. Dr. Grube describes a collection of 

 Taoist pictures ; Dr. Grlinv/edel contributes notices of the 

 iconography of the Lamas of Tibet and Mongolia, and Bishop 

 Thiel supplies a vocabulary from Costa Rica. Some of the papers 

 are illustrated by plates. 



The Christiania University has received a valuable collection 

 of ethnographical objects from East Greenland from the Danish 

 Government, as a mark of appreciation of the services rendered 

 by Dr. Knutsen, a Norwegian naturalist, to the expedition 

 under Lieut. Holm, of which he was a member. 



The well-known Norwegian savant. Dr. Rausch, makes in 

 the Norwegian press an appeal respecting meteors and earth- 

 quakes which is not without interest. Respecting the former, 

 he points out the scientific value of these objects, and describes 

 their outward appearance when reaching the earth, with a 

 request that a better look-out may be kept by people 

 than has hitherto been the case. Only two meteorites 

 have hitherto been found in Norway, viz. one in 1848 and one 

 in 1S84. Dr. Rausch is, however, of opinion that a great many 

 more have fallen. Respecting the belief prevaleat among the 

 peasants that a stroke of lightning is preceded by a stone, said 

 to be dark and burnt in appearance, the so-called "Thorelo," 

 i.e. "Thor's wadding," and which are kept on farms as a kind 

 of "household medicine," he ventures to suggest that they are 

 meteorites, and begs those who may possess such to send him a 

 small sample of the same. With regard to earthquakes he begs 

 that a closer attention be given to their duration, extent, and the 

 exact number of shocks, &c., than has hitherto been the case, 

 remarking that only the most minute details will enable us to 

 discover the origin and laws of these important phenomena. 



A LETTER from Bagamoyo, published in Cosmos, describes a 

 shower of stars seen there on November 27 last year. There 

 were at the time neither moon nor clouds ; the firmament was 

 of a sombre blue. The phenomenon commenced at 7 o'clock, 

 and the writer watched it until 9. Again he observed it at 11, 

 and he was informed that it lasted all night. Bagamoyo is 

 situated at 6" 23' south, and 36° 30' east of the meridian of Paris. 

 Putting the average fall at eight per second, which he believes 

 to be below the actual number, the number for the twelve hours 

 of the night would be about 350,000 asteroids. They came from 

 all points of the heavens, but they appeared to increase sensibly 

 as one ascended from the horizon towards the zenith. Usually 

 they fell singly, but sometimes a single constellation of five, eight, 

 andten atatimefell. Their luminous course was uniformlydirected 

 towards the south, south-east, and south-west. They did not 

 appear to form curves, but rather to advance rapidly in straight 

 lines. Many were like ordinary shooting-stars, but others left 

 behind them a luminous trail of extraordinary vividness and 

 beauty. White was the commonest colour in the train, but 

 many had a red, yellow, and orange tint. Each lasted about a 

 second, but some persisted for five and even ten seconds. No 

 sound or smoke was perceived, and the phenomenon was 

 followed by no notable change in the atmosphere. Two days 

 after some thunder was heard and a few drops of rain fell. It is 

 noted as curious that an old wise man on the coast had pre- 

 dicted shortly before that fire would fall from heaven shortly ; 

 possibly he had recognised a certain periodicity in the shower. 



We have received the first part of vol. i. of the Annalen of 

 the Imperial Natural History Museum of Vienna, edited by the 

 Director, Baron von Hauer. This part contains an account of 

 the year's work of the Institution, the organisation of which and 

 the arrangement of the new buildings were described in a recent 

 number of Nature. As the Museum includes all departments 

 of natural history in its widest sense — geology, zoology, botany, 

 anthropology — it will be evident that the year's work will be 

 full of interest. This part is the first of what promises to be a 

 series of papers issued at frequent intervals. In the next number 

 will be papers on new species of fish from the Orinoco and Ama- 

 zon, by Dr. Steindachner ; on new and rare antelopes in the 

 Museum, by Dr. Kohl ; and on the flora of South Bosnia and 

 neighbouring regions, by Dr. G. Beck. 



