44 



NATURE 



{_Nov. 8, 1883 



Thomas T. P. Bruce Warren, "The Manufacture of Mineral 

 Waters;" December I2, Thomas Fletcher, F.C.S., "Coal Gas 

 as a Labour-saving Agent in Mechanical Trades ; " December 

 19, W. H. Preece, F.R.S., " The Progress of Electric Light- 

 ing." There will be six courses of lectures delivered during the 

 session, under the bequest of Dr. Cantor. These will be : (i) 

 " The Scientific Basis of Cookery," by W. Mattieu Williams, 

 F.C.S. ; (2) "Recent Improvements in Photo-mechanical Print- 

 ing Methods," by Thomas Bolas, F.C.S. ; (3) "London 

 Houses," by Robert W. Edis, F.S.A. ; (4) " The Alloys used 

 for Coinage," by Prof. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., Chemist 

 of the Royal Mint ; (5) " Some New Optical Instruments and 

 Arrangements," by J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., F.R.A.S. ; 

 and (6) " Fermentation and Distillation," by Prof. W. Noel 

 Hartley, F.C.S. The usual short course of Juvenile Lectures 

 will be delivered during the Christmas holidays. The subject 

 will be " Crystals and Crystallisation," and the lecturer Mr. J. 

 M. Thomson, of King's College, London. 



The death is announced of Prof. Peter T. Riess, who^e 

 treatise on frictional electricity— " Die Lehre von Reibungselek - 

 tricitat " — has long been a standard work. Riess was a careful 

 and accurate observer of phenomena. His researches on ring- 

 figures produced by discharges, on the electric air thermometer, 

 and on the phenomena of the return stroke, are well known. 

 His memoirs on electricity were published in a collected form 

 some years ago. 



The sum of 100/. has been placed at the disposal of the 

 Council of the Statistical Society by Mr. H. D. Pochin for an 

 essay in memory of the late Mr. Wm. Newmarch, F.R.S., "On 

 the Extent to which Recent Legislation is in accordance with, or 

 Deviates from, the True Principles of Economic Science ; and 

 showing the Permanent Effects which may be expected to arise 

 from such Legislation." The Council accoidingly invite public 

 competition for the prize above mentioned. Essays must be sent 

 in on or before May i, 1884. 



Dr. Sophus Tromholt has just left for Iceland, where he 

 intends to establish his auroral station during the coming winter. 



In connection with the vote given by the delegates to the con- 

 gress at Rome for estalili-hing a meridian common to all civilised 

 nations, it may be stated that the first French meridian was not 

 originally that of Paris and special to the French geographers, 

 but Ferro, according to an ordinance of Louis XIII., published 

 in 1632 in compliance with a report drawn up by Cardinal de 

 Richelieu, then superintendent of commerce and navigation. It 

 was transferred to Paris only fifty years aftenvards by Dominique 

 Cassini, who obtained the authorisation of Louis XIV. and the 

 French Academy of Sciences, because it was too difficult to 

 ascertain the exact distance of the Ferro meridian. 



The date of admission of foundation members to the Inter, 

 national Society of Electricians has been postponed to Nov. 15, 

 when a general meeting to constitute the Society will be held, 

 which at present numbers 900 members, belonging to twenty 

 nationalities. Requests for admission should be addressed to 

 M. Georges Berger, 99, rue de Grenelle, Paris. 



M. Raphael Peruita writing to La Nature under date 

 Manilla, September 14, states that the detonations of the Java 

 eruption of August 27 were distinctly heard throughout the 

 Philippine Islands ; so distinctly were the sounds heard that 

 gnnboats were sent out under the imoression that a fight was 

 going on at Java, or that a ship in distress was firing for help. 



Of the expeditions despatched in May last from Denmark to 

 Greenland, the one to North Greenland, under Lieut. Hammers, 

 has just returned, after having succeeded in .accomplishing its 

 object, viz. to map out and examine the coast from Ritenbank 



to Kongatsiok in the Egedesminde district, vid Jacobshavn and 

 Kristiansbank, between 70° and 68° 20' N. lat. During the journey 

 the finest weather prevailed, which was a necessary condition, 

 as this part of the coast is greatly obstruct ed by islands and 

 holmes, w hile there are but few heights along it. By Lieut. 

 H.ammers and his companions' labours the exploration of the 

 coast of North Greenland has been completed, Lieuts. Steen- 

 strup and Hammers having — between 1S78 and 1880 — ex- 

 plored the district between Proven (Upernivik) and Godhavn, 

 and Lieut. Jensen, in 1879, the coast between Holstens. 

 borg and Egedesminde. These expeditions have succeeded 

 in collecting all the materials necessary for a map of the 

 whole coast between Proven and Hol-tenborg. Lieut. Hammers 

 has, besides geographical researches, also made collections 

 in natural history, and brought home valuable botanical 

 and mineralogical collections. From the second expedition, 

 under Lieut. Holm, despatched this summer to the district of 

 Julianshaab in order to carry out a tivo ;ind-a-half years' explora- 

 tion of the south coast of Greenland, a short report has been re- 

 ceived, stating that it had arrived at Huilek, a small settlement 

 on the east coast, in lat. 61°. Lieut. Holm had established a 

 depot of provisions here, to be brought north next summer to 

 his place of wintering. He intended to return to Nanortalik, 

 on the west coist, between Julianshaab and Cape Farewell, this 

 autumn, where the expedition will carry out meteorological and 

 auroral observations during the winter, which would be a con- 

 linuition on a small scale of those effected at Go-lthaab for a 

 year under the international scheme. These obicrvations will 

 be carried on in the buildings erected there by Capt. Hoffmeyer 

 in 1S82, and with the i:istruments of the previous expedition. 

 On returning to the west coast in the autumn, Lieut. Holm's 

 expedition will effect detailed explorations of the coast, fjords, 

 and the ice and sea. He has arranged with several Esquimaux 

 to meet and a-sist him on his journey northwards next year, 

 when he hopes to reach the sixty-seventh degree of latitude. 



Mk. Carl Bock's new book is now nearly ready for publica- 

 tion. Its title will be " Temples and Elephants," a narrative of 

 a journey of exploration through Upper Siam and Lao. Messrs. 

 Sampson Low and Co. are the publishers. 



During the last few years the Swedish Government have, 

 as an experiment, retained an entomologist to assist farmers in 

 the destruction of insects, &c., dangerous to the crops. The 

 services of this functionary have, however, been in such request 

 that the appointment is to be made a permanent one. 



On October 26 at about 7 p.m. a splendid meteor was seen in 

 the district of Herno and, Sweden. A traveller on the road to 

 Ragunda states that he suddenly saw the night lit up as in broad 

 daylight, which was caused by a large meteor appearing with a 

 blinding white lustre in the zenith and travelling very rapidly 

 down to the horizon. When half way, as it appeared to the 

 observer, between zenith and the earth it suddenly burst, throw- 

 ing a quantity of sparks in every direction. 



A Universal Exhibition on a tolerably large scale will be 

 opened at Nice on December i next, and will continue open 

 the whole of the winter. The Algerian Aklibar suggests that 

 in 18S5 a Pan-Mediterranean exhibition should be opened in 

 Algiers, and in 1887 a Pan- African one. 



We have to announce three new numbers of the "Encyclo- 

 paedia of Natural Sciences" from the publishing house of 

 Eduard Trewendt, Breslau — No. 35 of Part I, and Nos. 17 and 

 18 of Part 2, making up altogether a substantial addition to 

 what had been previously accomplished in the progress of ihis 

 comprehensive work. No. 35, Part I, gives a continuation of 

 "Schenk's Manual of Botany," more particularly a paper 

 by Gobel, well and copiously illustrated, on the "Comparative 



