184 



NATURE 



\_June 22, 



Orinoco, whose tributary, the Guyabero, he surveyed. A few 

 months ago the indefatigable explorer started for Rio Janeiro 

 for the purpose of exploring the country between that and the 

 Middle and Upper Amazon, and in attempting to carry out this 

 enterprise he.it is rumoured, has met with his untimely fate. 

 We hope it will turn out to be without foundation. 



The death is announced of Mr. Alexander Leslie, whose 

 name is associated with that of the distinguished Arctic explorer, 

 Nordenskjdld. Mr. Leslie, who was a native of Aberdeenshire, 

 was in his fifty-fourth year. He devoted much time to the study 

 of practical farming, and acquired a considerable knowledge of 

 agricultural [chemistry. Proceeding to Sweden, Mr. Leslie re- 

 sided there for several years, and upon his return to this country 

 he published, in 1879, through Messrs. Macmillan and Co., a 

 narrative of the " Arctic Voyages of Adolf Eric Nordenskjold, 

 from 1S58 to 1879." Our readers will remember that Mr. 

 Leslie was the translator of the famous explorer's own account 

 of "The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe." Mr. 

 Leslie was an occasional contributor to the columns of Nature. 

 The Danish steamer Arc/urns, from Iceland, arrived at Leith 

 on Saturday, and reported heavy casualties and serious loss of 

 life during the recent storms. On May 13, Capt. Schonstrup 

 met with immense ice-floes about fifty miles from the east coast 

 of the island. He afterwards steamed to the south-west, west 

 and north coasts, but was unable, after leaving Reykjavik, to 

 get near any of the ports for the ice. These coasts were again 

 attempted on June 6, but with the same result, the fields of ice 

 from Spitzbergen and the Polar seas being as extensive and 

 impenetrable as before. Large districts are said to be suffering 

 severely from famine, as the vessels are unable to land the pro- 

 visions, on the customary arrival of which they depended. The 

 severity of the weather is preventing the growth of the crops 

 and large numbers of sheep and ponies are dying. Measles, 

 which have not been known in Iceland for the last thirty-five 

 years, are very prevalent, and in Reykjavik alone no fewer than 

 200 persons were suffering from the epidemic when the steamer 

 left. 



Dr. Hjaltelin, the distinguished physician of Iceland, so 

 well known for the ready and hearty assistance he gave to all 

 scientific explorers of the island, died suddenly at Reykjavik 

 on June 5. 



Tornadoes of unexceptional severity and destructiveness are 

 reported from the Western States of America, particularly Iowa, 

 Illinois Missouri, and Kansas. One half of the town of Grin- 

 nel, Iowa, is stated to have been destroyed, and more than 100 

 persons killed, thi< tornado having swept over a tract twenty- 

 five miles long and half a mile wide, with devastating energy. 



The seventh annual report of the Japanese Minister of 

 Education states that there are 28,025 common schools in 

 Japan of which 16,710 are public, and the remainder private; 

 there being an increase of 1316 and 125 respectively, as 

 compared with the previous year. The number of high 

 schools is 107 public and 677 private, there being an in- 

 crease of 42 and 63 respectively. Besides the above, many 

 Kindergarten and primary schools were established. These 

 private schools, even now, play a most important part in 

 Japanese national life and education. Many of them have 

 hundreds of students attracted by the fame of a single teacher. 

 Youths flock from all parts of the country to sit at the feet of a 

 renowned scholar, as men did in Europe to hear Abelard. The 

 most celebrated of the^e leaders of youth — for this they are, 

 rather than simple schoolmasters in our sense of the word — is 

 Mr. Fukusawa of Tokio, whose translations from European 

 books and original works on the political and social questions of 

 the day, are < read far and wide in Japan. The students 

 of this gentleman fill many of the most important offices 

 in the state ; some of tbem recently formed themselves into 



a patriotic society, and established a newspaper, in which 

 the acts of the government are subject to much caustic 

 criticism. Long after the ordinary educational work of their 

 teacher is done, and the young men have gone out into 

 the world to do for themselves, they continue to reside near 

 him, to study under his direction, and to form classes in which 

 important public questions can be freely discussed under his 

 guidance. One of his classes translated the whole of Adam 

 Smith's " Wealth of Nations" into Japanese, with annotations, 

 and many other important European works, especially those on 

 philosophy and politics, owe their appearance in European dress 

 to Mr. Fukusawa and his pupils. The school has been a real, 

 and, we believe, a highly beneficial power in the state. These 

 "private schools," which have been political associations, and 

 debating clubs, as well as scholastic establishments, have occa- 

 sionally played important parts at crises of Japanese history. 

 The members of the private schools established in Kagoshima, 

 the capital of Sakuma, originated and led the great rebellion of 

 1S77. Fortunately Mr. Fukusawa's pupils are more peaceful in 

 their objects and methods. 



The French Government has established a prize of 2000/., to 

 be given to the person who in the course of five years — from 

 July I, 1882, to July 1, 1887— will have invented the most useful 

 application of the Volta pile. Foreigners are allowed to take 

 part in this competition, which was instituted for the first time 

 by Napoleon I., almost as soon as Volta invented bis admirable 

 instrument, and has been reopened at several periods. 



The proprietors of houses having a view of the Pare Mon- 

 ceaux have subscribed among themselves a sum for illuminating 

 this garden with a number of Jablochkoff lights. Similar steps 

 will be taken for other public gardens in Paris. The tradesmen 

 located in the Palais Royal are establishing a private company 

 for the same purpose. An experimental trial will be made 

 within a few days with incandescent lights. 



On June 15 M. Marcel Deprez delivered, in the large hall of 

 the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris, a lecture on the 

 transmission of electricity to great distances. The lecturer proved 

 that magneto-electric machines could be moved by a current 

 which had circulated through four kilometres of german-silver 

 wire, w hose resistance was twelve times longer than a similar 

 wire of copper, and having a few millimetres diameter. M. 

 Marcel Deprez declares that he will go almost to any length in 

 diminishing indefinitely the diameter of the wire of his dynamo- 

 magnetic machine, and that it is by resorting to large dynamos 

 that he will be ab'e to produce a current sufficiently powerful. 



Col. Laussedat, director of the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Metier-, has placed at the disposition of aeronauts, a dynamo- 

 meter of special construction for testing scientifically the resist- 

 ance of their canvass before and after varnishing. 



Two German expeditions will go to American stations in 

 order to observe the transit of Venus in December next. Ob- 

 servations will be taken at Stratford, Connecticut ; at Aiken, 

 South Carolina ; at Bahia Blanca ; and at Punta Arenas. 



Mr. Gildek, one of the correspondents of the New York 

 Herald in Siberia, telegraphs from the Lena Delta, April 24, 

 that he has found the bodies of Capt. De Long and his com- 

 panions, who, it may be remembered, were in the missing boat 

 belonging to the Jcannette. The poor men had evidently 

 perished of cold and hunger. 



Dr. Hasselberg of Pulkova has been able to trace the bright 

 line of sodium seen by many observers in the spectrum of Comet 

 Wells, to some distance in the tail of the comet. 



The Merchant Venturers' Company of Bristol have resolved 

 to erect, at an expense of 30,000/., a new Technical School on 

 the site of the old Bristol Grammar School, for the use of the 



