530 
NATURE 
[Sept. 30, 1886 
THE earthquakes still continue in North America. Fresh 
shocks were felt at Charleston and other places in the south at five | 
o'clock on the afternoons of the 27th and 28th inst. Shocks of 
earthquake were also at the same hour distinctly felt in Columbia, 
Augusta, and Savannah. 
A SHARP shock of earthquake occurred at Constantinople at 
half-past four on the morning of the 26th inst., but no damage 
was done. At about a quarter to five on the same morning two 
sharp shocks in rapid succession were felt in Smyrna and the 
neighbourhood. 
AN earthquake was felt at Aumale on the 22nd inst, at 
Ir a.m. ; four shocks were reported. 
THE White Island volcano, in the Bay of Plenty, off the North 
Island coast, New Zealand, is in active eruption, and sending 
forth a vast column of flame and smoke, rising to a height of 
100 feet. 
THE Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society has decided 
to print 77 extenso a translation of Prof. Virchow’s monograph 
on the Veddas. An abridgment will appear in the forthcoming 
number of the Society’s Proceedings. 
From the Cambridge University Press the following new 
publications are announced :—‘‘ A History of the Theory of 
Elasticity and of the Strength of Materials, from Galilei to the 
Present Time,” vol. i. ‘‘Galilei to Saint-Venant, 1639-1850, ” 
by the late I. Todhunter, D.Sc., F.R.S., edited and completed 
by Karl Pearson, M.A. ‘Lectures on th: Physiology of 
Plants,” by S. H. Vines, M.A., D.Sc., Fellow of Christ’s Col- 
lege. ‘Travels in Northern Arabia in 1876 and 1877,” by 
Charles M. Doughty, of Gonville and Caius College (with 
illustrations). ‘*The Scientific Papers of the late Prof. J. 
Clerk Maxwell,” edited by W. D. Niven, M.A. 
Messrs. Crospy Lockwoop ‘AND Co. announce the fol- 
lowing books for the forthcoming season :—‘‘ Modern Engines 
and Boilers: Marine, Locomotive, and Stationary,” by Walter 
S. Hutton, Civil and Mechanical Engineer (with upwards of 
300 illustrations). ‘The Works’ Manager’s Hand-book of 
Modern Rules, Tables, and Data, for Civil and Mechanical 
Engineers, &c.,” by Walter S. Hutton (third edition). ‘‘ The 
Portable Engine, in Theory and Practice,” by W. D. Wans- 
brough (with numerousillustrations). ‘* Expansion of Structures 
by Heat,” by John Keily, C.E., late Indian Public Works and 
Victorian Railway Departments. ‘‘Safe Railway Working,” 
by Clement E. Stretton, C.E. ‘‘ Drainage of Lands, Towns, 
and Buildings,” a practical treatise, being an abridgment of the 
works of the late G. D. Dempsey, C.E., with extensive addi- 
tions by D. Kinnear Clark, M.Inst.C.E. ‘‘ Trusses of Wood 
and Iron: Practical Applications of Science in determining the 
Stresses, Breaking Weights, Safe Loads, Scantlings, and details 
of Construction,” by William Griffiths. ** Shoring and its 
Application,” a manual for students, by George H. Blagrove 
(with numerous illustrations). 
H. K. Lewis has in preparation “ An Introduction to 
Practical Bacteriology,” by Edgar M. Crookshank, M.B. 
Lond., F.R.M.S., Demonstrator of Physiology, King’s College, 
London (2nd edition)’; also, by the same author, ‘* Photographs 
of Bacteria: an Investigation into the Value of Photography for 
delineating Preparations of Bacteria” (illustrated with 50 
permanent autotypes and numerous wood engravings). 
THE following publications are announced by Messrs. W. and 
R. Chambers :—‘‘ Natural History: its Rise and Progress in 
Britain, as developed in the Life and Labours of Leading Natu- 
ralists,’” by Prof. H. Alleyne Nicholson (Aberdeen). This will 
form vol. i. of a series called ‘‘Chambers’s British Science 
| great economy is_ possible. 
Biographies,” of which series the sezond volume, by Prof. 
Lapworth (Birmingham), will cover the field of British Geology. 
Other new books by the same publishers are: ‘Recent Travel 
and Adventure,” with illustrations ; and ‘‘ Lessons in Elementary 
Dynamics,” by H. G. Madan, M.A., Science Master in Eton 
College. 
THE grease of sheep's wool, a substance hardly utilised 
hitherto, may now’find use, according to a process lately brought 
before the French National Society of Agriculture by M. Rohart. 
He finds that, brought to its point of fusion, it very readily 
absorbs certain sulphur-compounds ; thus it will fix as much as 
100 times its volume of sulphuretted hydrogen ; and so treated 
it becomes saponifable in the cold state. M. Rohart presented 
some excellent soap made from the grease. The operation 
required takes less than an hour, whereas soaps with a base of 
soda generally take 6 to § hours in their production. Moreover, 
the saponification can be obtained completely without caustic 
alkalies, and simply with alkaline carbonates ; a new scientific 
fact, applicable to all fatty matters when sulphurised. Thus a 
This sulphurised soap is recom- 
mended by M. Rohart, zv¢er alia, for use in vine-cultivation, 
IN a recent thesis on the modification of plants by climate, 
Mr. Crozier, of Michigan University, considers it established 
**that as plants move from the locality of their largest develop- 
ment towards their northern limit of growth, they become dwarfed 
in habit, are rendered more fruitful, and all parts become more 
highly coloured, Their comparative leaf surface is often increased. 
their form modified, and their composition changed. Their 
period of growth is also shortened, and they are enabled to 
develop at a lower temperature.” 
THE successful cultivation, since 1884, of the Ramie or China 
grass plant (Boehmeria nivea) on the Champ-de-l’Air at Lausanne 
(altitude 520 m.), by Prof. Schnetzler, is an interesting fact in 
botany. This shrub, a native of China and Sumatra, has been 
grown in the south of the United States and of France for thirty 
years. Recently it has been introduced into Algeria. There is 
of course a striking difference in the conditions of temperature 
between Lausanne and the places in Asia where Ramie is grown. 
While the latitude of the latter is from 15° to 35°, that of Lau- 
sanne is 46° 31’. The mean temperature at Lausanne is 9°°5 C. 
Last winter the plants underwent long periods of great cold ; in 
one case, ¢.g., the thermometer being below zero for 124 hours, 
with a minimam on the ground of —12°°5 C. 
THE question of telephony v. telegraphy hes been recently 
discussed by a well-known German electrician, Dr. Wietlisbach. 
| The chief hindrance to the use of the telephone for long distances 
is, he points out, of a financial, not of a technical, nature. A 
teiephone-line 2000 km. long costs considerably over a million © 
It is still possible to speak very well this distance ; but. 
marks. 
even supposing the line were in constant use day and night, the 
receipts must be 5 marks (say shillings) a minute to make it pay. 
In telephone work, however, the line is in use only a few hours 
daily ; hence a short conversation would cost at least 50 marks 
(22, 10s.). That is, of course, too dear for ordinary traffic. The - 
telegraph works, with almost the same speed, more than ten 
times more cheaply. Thus the question as to rivalry between 
telephone and telegraph finds its settlement. The telephone, 
up to about 509 km. distance (say 310 miles), will more and 
more displace the telegraph, and find an extension which the 
telegraph would never reach. But for greater distances the 
telegraph must keep the upper hand. ‘Thus telephone and 
telegraph are really not rivals, but fitted to supplement each 
other, 
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