38 
The form of the guns is adapted to the curve of pressure ; that 
curve, as shown by Col. Maitland at the Royal United Service 
Institution, is wrong ; the maximum pressure which is near the 
breech is known, but with the slow-burning powder in a long gun 
the total pressure, and the maximum pressure at any point of the 
bore, has never been accurately determined. If Mr. Anderson’s 
conclusions carefully arrived at by calculation are correct, these 
guns are out of proportion between the trunnions and the 
muzzle, where the bursts have all taken place. Another branch 
of the same subject is the measurement of the energy of recoil, 
of much importance in designing disappearing carriages. In this 
branch, I can answer for it, that Mr. Anderson’s conclusions 
tally with the practical result—a satisfactory proof of their cor- 
rectness. His discovery is of great practical value in making 
gun-carriages of all descriptions, and has changed, once and for 
all, the previously accepted formulze for the force of recoil given 
in the text-books, which often led to costly mistakes in ¢ onstruc- 
tion. Mr. Anderson has been trying, since the publication of 
his lecture at the Society of Arts, to induce the Government to 
test the correctness of his vievs by means of the Sebert veloci- 
meter, but without success. It must be admitted that in deter- 
mining so important a matter, one on which the efficiency of our 
ships and a large national expenditure depends, it should be the 
first desire of every one to secure without delay the highest scien- 
tific and practical experience within reach, and to consult men 
who have devoted special study and research to the subject.” 
On April 30 there took place in Paris, at the Ministry of 
Public Instruction, a meeting of French astronomers. M. Faye 
was in thechair. It was decided unanimously to build three 
photographing telescopes. One of these is destined for the 
Algiers Observatory. The destination of the others will be deter 
mined upon when finished. The construction will take eighteen 
months. : 
M. JANSSEN has terminated the installation of the tubes for 
analysing the influence of the atmosphere on spectroscopic 
analysis, absorbing power, &c. Their length is 100 metres, and 
they can be filled with gas under a pressure of 100 atmospheres. 
The light is supplied by a battery of 60 Bunsen elements. 
Experiments are conducted on nitrogen, oxygen, common air, 
&e. 
HERR PAuL von RITTER, who died at Basle, has left to the 
University of Jena a sum of 300,000 marks, to be employed for 
the furtherance of zoological studies. 
CANADA is nearly the only important British colony without its 
Goyernment Botanic Garden ; the identity of its flora with that 
of the Northern United States rendering such an establishment of 
much less value than in most of our colonial possessions. But 
for some years past leading Canadians interested in horticulture 
have been exerting themselves for the establishment of a Botanic 
Garden at Montreal. Through the co-operation of the authori- 
ties of McGill College and the Council of the Montreal Horti- 
cultural Society, this object is now secured, and the ‘‘ First 
Annual Report ” of the ‘‘ Montreal Botanic Garden ” is issued. 
The Garden is not yet in existence ; but a very favourale site 
of seventy-five acres has been secured in Mount Royal Park, a 
varied piece of ground admirably adapted for the purpose, on 
the s'ope of the beautiful mountain overlooking the city, from 
which it derives its name. An Act of Incorporation for the 
““Montreal Botanic Garden Association” has been obtained, 
wherein the objects of the corporation are stated to be ‘‘ By the 
medium of a Botanic Garden and other accessories, to promote 
research in forestry and economic botany, and advance the in- 
terests of technical and general botanical knowledge.” Among 
the means contenplated in the future for carrying out these 
objects we are glad to see the establishment of courses of lec- 
tures on special subjects and a laboratory for special research. 
MATURE 
[May 13, 1886 
We wish every success to the new Association, which solicits 
contributions in trees, shrubs, seeds, and publications. 
Av the last general meeting of the Folk-Lore Society, Capt- 
Temple read a paper on the science of folk-lore. At the con- 
clusion he referred to terminology. Folk-lore, he said, is a fine 
English compound, but there is asad want of an alternative, if 
only for the sake of useful and necessary derivatives. Folk- 
lorist and folk-loric are not pleasant forms, but students have 
been driven to use both. He suggests some classically-formed 
synonym, such as demology, demosophy, or demonocy—the last 
for choice—capable of easy development into passable deriva- 
tives, as being of practical use. Dogma has been appropriated 
already, or dogmology might, he thinks, answer, and demodog- 
mology is too long. Dokeology and dokesiology, as the study of 
fanciful opinions, are also suggested. 
In a recent article in Za Nature M, Martel refers to a dis- 
covery which he has made in the prehistoric caves in Lozére. 
For fifteen years past Dr. Pruniéres has prosecuted his investi- 
gations into the dolmens and neolithic grottos of the gorges 
of the Tarn, and obtained some curious; results on 
the fusion of a race of the age of polished stones and of an 
invading race of the Bronze Age. Last year in the cave of 
Nabrigas, M. Martel found in immediate contact with the 
remains of at least two skeletons of the Ursus sfeleus, or great 
Quaternary bear, nine fragments of human skulls, cf which one 
left superior maxillary had three teeth, and a piece of rough 
pottery, not turned in a lathe. The question whether, in the 
Stone Age, man, the contemporary of the reindeer and the great 
bear, was acquainted with the use of pottery is much debated, 
eminent names being found supporting the negative as well as 
the positive. But (continues M. Martel) the curious point about 
the present find is that fifty years ago, before the birth of ‘‘ pre- 
has 
~history,’’ when the existence of even Quaternary man was con- 
tested, M. Joly found in this very cave of Nabrigas a fragment 
of a large vessel in contact with the skull of a fossil bear. M. 
Martel is strongly of opinion that the usual theory of the fortuitous 
contact of these objects does not apply here ; there is no trace 
of any disturbance, nor are any other neolithic objects found, 
the skull is in its natural position,—for these and other reasons 
he is persuaded that fossil man of the palzolithic age was 
acquainted with the potter’s art. 
THE fish-hatching seasoa at South Kensington, accounts of 
which we have published from time to time, is now drawing to 
a close, although there are still half a million fry on view at the 
Exhibition which have not yet absorbed their zwmdbilical sac. 
The various species of fish bred have been presented by the 
National Fish Culture Association to public waters in the 
vicinity of London and in the country, whilst the Fishery of the 
Association has been well stocked with fry. 
THe Thames Angling Preservation Society, which is ever 
ready to secure fresh supplies of fish for the Thames, have lately 
netted one of the ponds in Kew Gardens for this purpose. 
DurINnG the present week large consignments of fish have 
arrived at the aquarium of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 
from the south coast and North Sea. The latest arrivals consist 
of cod, lings, haddocks, crustaceans of various species, grey 
mullet, bream, and Salmonide. A large Ascension turtle has 
also arrived in the tropical department, measuring 44 feet by 3 
feet. Considering the protracted period it was out of the water 
during transit, its condition on being placed in the Chelonian 
tank did not evidence the slightest signs of diminished vitality, 
which is another proof of the hardihood and tenacity of life 
possessed by this species. The turtle tank now contains twenty 
large specimens of the green and hawksbill kind, all of which 
seem in good health notwithstanding the artificial existence to 
