4/Q 



NATURE 



{Sept. 7, i! 



measure water charged with carbjnate of iron. It must, how ever, 

 be re nembered that after the uplifting of thePalaeozoie rocks there 

 was a vast lapse of time during the denudation by the Triassic Sea, 

 and that much of the limestone, not now overlain by the Coal 

 Measures and Mil. stone-grit, wa; covered by those beds fir a 

 considerable time. Further, water percolating through the Coal 

 Measures would become highly chirged with carbonic acid, 

 •riven off from vegetation undergoing transition into coal, and 

 water, S3 charged, would not he so long in dissolving and eroding 

 out caver is. Mr. Etheridge had referred (Quart, jfuurn. 6Vi>/. 

 Society, 1S70, ix. 1S5) the origin of the Carboniferous haematites, 

 in the West of England, to the infilling of faults, fissures, &c, 

 during the denudation by the Triassic Sea ; but stated that 

 "dmbtless the rercolati <n of water through overlying strata, 

 highly charged with oxides of iron, had been a source and mode 

 of accumulation." Though the author was disp sed to consider 

 it pos ible that some of the haematite may have been derived 

 fr..m the percol ition of water through the Coal Measures and 

 Mill. tone-grit, yet he agreed with Mr. Eiheridge that the most 

 probable source was from the Trias rocks ; not, however, during 

 the accumulation of the strata composing that formation, but by 

 sub equent percolation of water after consolidation of the bed-. 

 This water, on arriving at the Carboniferous Limestone, would 

 fl >w down the cracks, fissures, and joints, provided there were 

 such, but a comparatively small portion would filter through the 

 actual rock on account of its being but slightly pervious to water. 

 The author c m^idered that it was ow ing to this fact that w e 

 generally find haematite where the Magnesian Conglomerate rests 

 upon the Carboniferous Limestone. The water being unable to 

 penetrate the roc, would naturally find an outlet at the junction 

 of the two formations ani by the wearing away of the rock the 

 conditions would soon be arrived at when the deposition of the 

 ir >n wou'd take place. 



NOTES 



The concluding meeting of the P'rench Association at La 

 Rochelle was rather stormy, although not more than 203 mem- 

 bers were present. M. Bouquet de la Grye was nominated vice- 

 preMdent for 1SS3 and president for 1884. Although very few 

 members took part in the work of the meeting, sixteen different 

 sections were kept in operation ; this extreme division has 

 somewhat impaired their activity. However a number of inte- 

 resting papers were read and discussed. M. Debrun, Professor 

 in the College of Pau, described a new system of central magazines 

 for distributing electricity, a new balance for determining by mutual 

 repulsi in of currents their relative force, and a new registering elec- 

 trometer. M. Marcel Deprez presented a new apparatus for deter- 

 mining the mechanical equivalent of heat, based mostly on Leon 

 Foucault's experiments. Pie hopes to determine with a sulphurous 

 acid calorimeter the real value of this coefficient with an ap. 

 proxiuiation of to'ott'u- M. Tissandier presented again his re- 

 searches on light bichromate elements ; he contends that he 

 obtains regularity of action without renewing the liquid, and 

 without insuflation. Dr. Landowsky delivered an eloquent 

 address against the dangers of injecting morphia, as practised 

 nowadays by so many people. He deprecated strenuously this 

 new method of intoxication ; he calls it morphiomania 

 or morphinism. Dr. Audrat has paid special attention to the 

 anaemia of miner.-, and described it in a very interesting address. 

 Electric lighting experiments were tried in the rooms of the 

 Hotel de Nantes by a new system invented by M. Debrun. 



Admiral Mouchez has been visiting the Pic du Midi to 

 a-certain whether astronomical observations could be conducted 

 successfully there. 



The. Standard's New York Correspondent telegraphs that 

 Mr. Edison's system of providing an incandescent electric light 

 for domestic use in a given district has just been put to a practical 

 te t in th it city. The district selected occupies an area of nearly 

 a square mile. Only one source of supply is provided, and that 

 furnishes the illuminating power for sixteen thousand lamps, the 

 electric current passing through eighteen miles of mains. The 



result is tbat the severest demands which the consumers have 

 been able to make upon the new system have been satisfied. 

 The New York Herald is using in is business premises an iso- 

 lated plant on the same principle. No new ; o' istacle has pre- 

 sented i'self to the success in practice of Mr. Edi-on's theory ; 

 and scientific men, the Correspondent sta'es, will be intere-ted 

 to know that this fir a t practical experiment demonstrates the 

 soundness of the inventor's application of the multiple arc system, 

 pure and simple, as distinguished from the series system, or the 

 combination of the arc and series systems. Throughout the 

 entire district lighted as described, each lamp was independent 

 of all the others. 



The electric illuminati jn of the Vaudeville, on the Boulevard 

 Montmartre, is a great suece-s. The hall is crowded every night. 

 An II horse-power gas machine with Faure accumulators is 

 sufficient to illuminate every night about 250 Swan lamps. 



Considerable interest was expressed by many visitors to the 

 Ordnance Survey Office during the British Association meeting 

 at Southampton, that the old and costly process of reducing the 

 25-inch maps to 6-inoh scale, and engraving .them on copper- 

 plates, of which moulds had to be obtained, and electrotyped 

 replicas had to be made, from which the copies were printed 

 off, has been superseded by a cheap and rapid process, by which 

 maps can be at once reduced and published on the 6-inch scale, 

 so soon as the 25-inch scale is completed ; by a simple application 

 of photography the lines are reduced to any desired scale, and at 

 once transferred to an inexpensive zinc-plate. The new 6-inch map, 

 produced by the photozincographic process, adopted by the Survey 

 in their reproduction of the Doomsday Book, will in future be 

 issued for all the counties of England and Wales, where no 

 6-inch maps exist engraved from copper plates, but in those 

 counties where a portion of the area has been published, on the 

 latter system, the old process will be continued to secure uni- 

 formity. The new 6-inch maps are smaller in size than th <se 

 formerly published, and at present are not contoured, but their 

 lines w ill be added in subsequent editions. Their publication 

 will at once permit the much-required completion of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of our coal-fields, which is a matter of the most 

 urgent necessity. 



We regret to learn of the death, at Dorpat, of Dr. Kreuzwald, 

 the publisher of old Esthonian songs and poems. He was bom 

 in 1804, and studied medicine at Dorpat. When a student 

 he began to collect songs and tales of his country-people, and in 

 the years 1840 to 1850 he published a series of remarkable 

 articles on Esthonian antiquities, mythology, traditions, and 

 tales. His principal work was the publication, with annotations, 

 of the whole of the different parts of the great Esthonian poem, 

 " Kalewinoey," remarkable by its fine poetical feeling for nature 

 and analysis of human feelings. It was translated into all the chief 

 European languages. In 1877 Dr. Kreuzwald was compelled to 

 abandon his medical practice, and died in poverty at Dorpat. 



THE Official Messenger of St. Petersburg announces, on 

 September 1, that " by order of the Emperor the admission of 

 new pupils to the course of medical training for women, at the 

 Nicholas Military Hospital, will be discontinued after the present 

 term. The students will be allowed to conclude their course, 

 after which the clinical instruction for women at the hospital 

 will be abolished. " The Medical Academy for Women, the 

 courses of which were quite equal to those of the old Universities, 

 had 367 students. Since 1877, when the first lady students 

 passed the examinations, 281 ladies have completed the whole 

 course of studies, and 152 had passed the examinations of M.D. ; 

 105 of them were in service at universities and in public 

 hospitals. 



News received from the Finnish Circumpolar observation 

 party states that the members arrived at Sodankyla in the north 



