366 



NA TURE 



\_Feb. 14, 1 1 



having requested that of Sweden to forward as complete journals 

 as possible of the meteorological phenomena of the Nortli 

 Atlantic Ocean between Augnst I, 1882, and September I, 1S83, 

 the Office has made a cai'eful abstract of these journals for this 

 purpose. 



The consistory of the Upsala University has voted a sum of 

 about 200/. for the purchase of objects of natural history for the 

 University collected by the savanlt of the Vanadis Expedition 

 round the world, now taking place. 



On January 14 a "green"' moon was observed at Kalmar 

 in Sweden. At about J p.m., just after the sun had set, 

 leaving an intense purple glow on the sky — more intense than 

 the late sun-glows — the moon came out of a layer of heavy 

 clouds in the east. A few seconds after — the disk being then 

 perfectly clear— a light haze gathered around it, partly veiling it, 

 which immediately changed the bright silver colour to an emerald 

 gi-een. The phenomenon lasted for three minutes, when the 

 disk again by degrees assumed its former brightness. A similar 

 phenomenon was observed near Stockholm on January 17 at 

 about 8 o'clock in the morning. It lasted about three minutes. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society have 

 arranged to hold, at 25, Great George Street, S.W., by permis- 

 sion of the President and Council of the Institution of Civij 

 Engineers, on the evening of March 19 next, an Exhibition of 

 Thermometers. The Committee will also be glad to show any 

 new meteorological apparatus invented or first constructed since 

 last March ; as well as photographs and drawings possessing 

 meteorological interest. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Committee of the Sunday Society 

 w-as held on Monday afternoon, February 4, at 9, Conduit Street, 

 W., Prof. W. H. Corfield, M.D., in the chair. The Honorary 

 Secretary submitted a Report on tlie recent voting as to the future 

 political action of the Society, from which it appeared that 391 

 bad voted in favour of making tlie Sunday opening of museums 

 a test question at elections of Members of Parliament, and that 

 470 voted against this proposal ; 853 voted in favour of making 

 the question the subject of an annual motion in the House of 

 Commons, and only 1 1 voted against this proposal. Resolutions 

 were subsequently passed pledging the Society to action in 

 accordance with these results. 



Like its better known namesake in the metiopolis, the Royal 

 Institution, Liverpool, has done much to popularise scientific 

 knowledge during the present century. So far back as 1820 it 

 first gave a permanent home to a scientific society in Liverpool, 

 by admitting the Literary and Philosophical Society to share its 

 roof, for the purpose, say the Minutes, " of extending the know- 

 ledge of arts and sciences." Since then the number of societies 

 with scientific aims lias steadily grown in Liverpool, and the 

 number of members composing them to some extent increased as 

 steadily. The accommodation of the Institution is found to be 

 limited, and the idea of devoting the whole of the available space 

 for the purpose of meetings is beginning to take definite shape, 

 and was supported by Mr. Morton, F.G.S., in his presidential 

 address last week. A vei-y large part of the building is occupied 

 by the museum, which was formerly the most important in Liver- 

 pool ; for many years not less than 30,000 persons visited it on 

 free days annually ; this number was maintained up to 1868-69, 

 when it all at once fell oft"; last year the number was only 4489, 

 of whom only 1019 visited the natural history collections. This 

 diminution of interest was coincident with the opening of the 

 Free Public Museum. In 1817 the Institution disposed of the 

 mammalia, reptiles, fishes, Crustacea, polyzoa, and corals in tlie 

 museum, and it is thought desirable that the remaining collections 

 of interest and locul characUr should be absorbed into the Cor- 



poration Museum. The Institution has schools which are in an 

 exceedingly prosperous condition, and its library has a large 

 collection of standard works in natural science. 



In a letter on the remarkable sunsets from Mr. S. E. Bishop, 

 dated Honolulu, January 15, the writer mentions the important 

 fact that the reddish haze was seen 4000 miles west of Panama 

 on September 3 from the barque Southard- Hurlbiirt. 



The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers has been pleased 

 to grant a donation of 21/. to the National Health Society, 44, 

 Berners Street. 



A PRorosiTlON ha? been presented to the Municipal Council 

 of Paris to give the name of Darwin to a new street about to be 

 opened. 



The Hotel Dieu, Paris, having Gramme machines and steam- 

 engine, the Administration of the Assistance Publiquehas decided 

 to introduce experimentally the use of Edison incandescent lights 

 in the halls inhabited by patients. The Hotel Dieu is the largest 

 and the leading French hospital. 



The French Minister of Public Instruction will organise in 

 Paris an exhibition of the objects which have been collected at 

 Cape Horn by the Romanche. The collection is composed of 

 170 cases of valuable specimens of mineralogy, geology, and 

 zo )logy, as well as living plants which will be acclimatised as far 

 as possible in French forests. 



The International Association of Electricians, of which we 

 have announced the creation in Paris, will hold its monthly 

 sittings at the rooms of the Society of Geography. The first took 

 place at the beginning of this month. Tlie first part of the 

 Traiisacliotis of the Association has reached us. 



A new popular scientific paper has been published in Paris 

 entitled Le Mouvemcnt Scientifiijuc. 



The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Pliilo- 

 sophy will meet henceforth in the rooms of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, 22, Albemarle Street, W. 



Shortly before sunset on Tuesday evening when the whole 

 of the population of Notaresco, in the Abruzzo, had retired 

 within doors on account of the intense cold, a shock of earth- 

 quake was felt, of such severity that the people rushed headlong 

 into the streets and remained there until after midnight. The 

 shock was also felt at Atri, Guilianova, Avellino, and Citta 

 Sant' Angelo. A violent earthquake also occurred on the loth 

 inst. in the district of Birvari, Province of Bitlis, Turkey. A 

 large number of houses and other buildings were thrown down. 



Mount Etna has, since Saturday, entered into sn eruptive 

 stage by throwing out ashes from the topmost crater. Strong 

 earthquake shocks in the districts around the mountain preceded 

 the outbreak. 



An unusually bright meteor was seen in Western Germany on 

 January 28, about 7.30 p.m. At Barmen its motion seemed to 

 be from east to west, while at Neuwied south to north w as the 

 direction. Its brilliancy is generally compared to that of the 

 full moon. 



At the last meeting of the Berlin Anthropological Society, 

 Prof. Nehring reported on the discovery of a cave near the 

 village of Holzen (Brunswick), which is of special interest, in- 

 asmuch as there is strong evidence of cannibalism among the 

 ancient cave men of that place, the first time that such evidence 

 is forthcoming concerning the prehistoric inhabitants of what s 

 now Germany. In Belgium and Spain similar evidence had 

 been found, but had been dismissed as doubtful. The bone- 

 remains of the Holzen cave are not completely calcined ; at the 



