416 



NATURE 



[August 24, 



composer of some merit, but a learned thinker and writer who e 

 numerous works are largely consulted in France, and which have 

 rendered great service to the art, history, and literature of 

 music. 



The Report of the Chief Inspector of Mines (Mr. Couchman) 

 to the Minister of Mines for the Colony of Victoria, for the year 

 1881 is both an interesting and instructive document. It appears 

 that there were altogether 38,436 miners employed in the colony, 

 and, of these, part were engaged in alluvial mining, and part in 

 quartz mining. The total number of accidents was 157, by 

 which 72 men were killed and 10S injured. Forty of the deaths 

 and 43 of the cases of injury were caused by falls of earth or rock 

 at the surface and underground. More than 50 per cent, of the 

 whole were thus due to a class of accidents which claim a similar 

 proportion of the victims in our mines at home. The remaining 

 accidents arose from : falling down shafts, winzes, and sho its ; 

 falls of material down shafts ; cage accidents ; machinery in 

 motion ; explosion of lithofracteur, gunpowder, dynamite, &c. • 

 and miscellaneous causes. After describing the nature of the 

 principal accidents Mr. Couchman discusses at considerable length 

 the dangers due to the use of nilro-glycerine compounds, nnd he 

 quotes the remarks of Lieut. -Col. Majendie upon an accident that 

 occurred with dynamite and blasting gelatine in the Mineia lead 

 mine near Wrexham, on March 23, 18S1. He also shows that 

 the Miners' Accident ReliefFundsareina fairly healthy condition, 

 and be says that the balance sheets which were submitted to him 

 "afford clear proof of the great good effected by judicious com- 

 bination for the relief of distress and of the large amount of 

 bei efit distributed by these praiseworthy associations since their 

 establishment. The whole of the details of each accident, both 

 fatal and non-fatal, are set forth in tabulated form ; and five 

 appendices show : (a) the number of accidents that occurred in 

 the -everal divisions of each district ; (b) the names of persons 

 killed, whether married or single, and the number of children 

 left by them ; (c) the prosecutions under the Regulation of Mines 

 Statute, 1877 ; (d) a schedule of the amounts paid to persons 

 injured and to the relatives of persons killed ; (E) the causes of 

 the mining accidents which occurred in the several mining dis- 

 tricts. The Report is thus very complete in every imaginable 

 kind of detail. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include five Wild Boars (Sus scrofa), European, pre- 

 sented by the Count de Paris ; an Egyptian Cat (Fclis cliaus) 

 from North Africa, presented by Lieutenants Fisher and 

 Farquhar and Mr. Basset, H.M.S. Bacchante; a Black R.nt 

 (A/ns rat/us), British, presented by Mr. W. E. Bryant jaThicknee 

 (CEdicncmits crepitans), British, presented by Mr. C. W. Hardin" ; 

 an Indian Python (Python molurus) from India, presented by 

 Capt. Laws ; two Blue-faced Lorikeets (Trickoglosius hcematodes) 

 from Timor, received on approval. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, August 14. — M. Blanchard in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : — Note on Dr. Andries' 

 theory of cyclones, by M. Faye. This German observer takes a 

 similar view to M. Faye's. Cyclone-, tornadoes, and trombes 

 are one and the same mechanical phenomenon, and their power- 

 ful action is due to the force in upper currents. Dr. Andries 

 furnishes experimental evidence from liquids. — On the appear- 

 ance of manganese on the surface of rocks, by M. Boussingault. 

 He found on quartz pebbles carried don n by Venezuelan streams, 

 a thin dark pellicle of bioxide of manganese. A similar colora- 

 tion of granite on the Orinoco, Nile, and Congo, has been 

 observed. The natives of the Andes say that it is only the white 

 (colourless) rivers that produce the dark banks ; they regard the 

 black granite rock-, as unhealthy (and with reason). In the 

 Andes M. E mssingault found a spring containing a good deal of 

 m in 'anese, and forming deposits lil-e those just referred to ; the 



dark pclbcle is probably due to suroxi lati >n, in air, of the 

 proioxide f manganesic carbonate. — Experimental researcheson 

 the mode of formation of craters of the moon, by M. Bergeron. 

 He sends hot air through a bra-- tube into a melted but 

 gradually cooling mass of Wood's Alloy. The bubbling forces 

 the. forming pellicle aside in a cirntlar space, giving the aspect 

 of a circus, then of a crater ; ere long, the mas- becoming pasty, 

 the gas no longer clears the pellicle, but forms a cone in the 

 middle. Some slightly different effects are had with other alloys ; 

 the -ides of the cone may have a more bn iken-np ap earance. An 

 interruption of the current gave two concentric craters, the inner 

 the higher (compare the lunar Copernicus, &c). — Terms of 

 short period in the earth's motion of rotation, by M. Roze. — 

 On the cure of saccharine diabetes, by M. I'clizet. Bernard 

 showed that irritation of a part of the medulla oblongata causes 

 glycosuria. M. Felizet seek- to sup ress irrita ion in the same 

 quarter (the cau-e of diabetes), by the sedative action of bromide 

 of p itassium, and in fifteen cases he ha- thus effected a cure. — 

 On a new process of insulation of electric wire-, by M. Geoffroy. 

 He wraps them in a-bestos fibres and end ses in a lead lube. 

 The wire may be quite volatilised with ut a -park being emitted. 

 The lead shows no trace of fusion. — Di-covery of a small planet 

 at Paris Observatory, by M. Paul Henry. — Description of the 

 Manger Prjesepe in the Crab, and miciotnetric measures of 

 relative 1 ositions of the principal stars composing it, by 

 M. Wolf. — On the theory of uniform functions of a vari- 

 ble, by M. Mittag-Leffler. — General method for solution 

 of problems relative to principal axe- and momenta of inertia ; 

 oscillation balance for estimation of moments of inertia, by 

 M. Brassinne. — On the longitudinal vibrations of elastic bars, 

 &c. (continued), by MM. Sebertand Hugoniot. — Hydrodynamic 

 experiment- ; imitation by liquid or gaseous currents, of mag- 

 ne'ic figures obtained with electric currents or with magnets 

 (sixth note), by M. Decharme. Inter alia, water or air is forced 

 through a tapered glass tube against a plate covered with a thin 

 layer of minium diluted with water. — 1 )n 'he surface tension of 

 some liquids in contact with carbonic acid, bv M. Wroblew-ki. 

 The decrease of the superficial tension of the liquids depends 

 solely mi the fact that the superficial tension of the carbonic 

 acid with which they are compressed is extremely small. — On 

 some arseniates neutral to litmus, by MM. Filhol and Senderens. 

 — Fermentation of starch ; presence of a vibrion in the germi- 

 nating grain of maize and in the stem of this plant, by M. 

 Marcano. This inquiry relates to chicha, a strongly alcoholic 

 drink prepared by American Indians from m >ize. The vibrion's 

 presence i- regarded as clearing up -everal points hithert > 

 ob-cure. — On five new parasitic protozoa, by M. Kunstler. 

 These were found in the larva of Melolonthus and of Orycies, and 

 in tadpole-. — Researches on the organ- of flidit in insects of the 

 order of Hcmiptera, by M. Moleyre. The apparatus connecting 

 the anterior and posterior wings is here studied ; M. Moleyre 

 considers that in the sub-order Heteroptera, whose hemelytra (or 

 anterior wings) fulfil best the rile of protective -heaths, the con- 

 necting apparatus appears, with a remarkable fixity, in its most 

 perfect form. — Pierre Breton and the binary nomenclature, by 

 M. Crie.— On a disease of beet, by M. I'nllieux. This disease, 

 unknown in France before, and due to a Peronospora, has 

 appeared at Joinville-le Pont (Seine) —1 In the coat .if Muaraze, 

 in Zamhesia, by M. Guyot. " Exploitation" seems impassible. 



CONTENTS p^e 



Text-Books of Anatomi 385 



B Editor:— 



Schoo' Museums.— Rev. A. Shaw Pag» 386 



Two Kinds ..f Stamens with Different Functions in the same 



Flower— Henky O. Forbes 386 



Habits uf Spiders.— Frank J. Rowboth u 386 



Messrs. McAlnine's Atlases.— D. McAlhnr 386 



The • Eika" Expedition 387 



Prof. Haeckei. in Cevlon, IV 388 



The British Association 390 



Inaugural Address by C. William Siemens. II CI. Usui). I. LP. 

 (Glase and Dul. I). Ph.D., F.RS., F.C.S . Member Inst. C.E.. 



President 390 



Section A— Mathematical and Physical — ipening Address by the 

 1 , t Hon. Lord Rayleigh, M.A., F.R.S.. F.R.A.S., President 



of the Secti n 4 c o 



Section B— Chemical Science— (Opening Address by Prof. G. D. 



I : eine, M.A., F.R.S., F.C.S., Presiden if the Section ... 403 

 Section I 1 B.ol gy Opening Address by Arthur Gameee, M.D., 

 F.R.S , Blackenhury Professor of Pay, ologj in I 'wen- C'llcge, 



Manchester, President of the Section 405 



Votes 4 T 4 



StiCIETIBS AND ACADEMIES 4*6 



