NA TURE 



[Dec. 



Artificial respiration was therefore resorted to, and this opera- 

 tion was unceasingly continued for nine hours, when at last the 

 patient made an attempt to breathe, and soon regained con- 

 sciousness enough to make his wants known. He steadily im- 

 proved until the Friday, the accident having taken place on a 

 Wednesday, and then astonished those around him by stating that 

 during the severe operation of Wednesday night he was con- 

 scious of all that was taking place, but was unable to make his 

 feelings known, not having power over a single muscle. It 

 would seem that the poison paralysed the nerves of motion, but 

 not those of feeling, for he could see, and hear, and feel, 

 although the physicians, even by touching the eyeball, could get 

 no response either of feeling or consciousness. His partial 

 recovery was, however, followed by a high fever and inflam- 

 mation of the lungs, and he died, perfectly conscious, on 

 the following Sunday. 



The New Zealand Government are about to collect saluioii 

 ova in Scotland and transfer them to that colony for incubation. 

 It will be remembered that the Royal Commissioner for New 

 Zealand has previously carried out similar work successfully, 

 and it has been found that the 5'.- sa/ar thrives well in the waters 

 of that possession. Last year a large number of salmon ova 

 were collected from Scotland, and hatched out and reared in 

 New Zealand. 



Commencing on January i, 1SS7, a journal is to be published 

 by the National Fish-Culture Association, comprising not only 

 information regarding its transactions from time to time, but also 

 articles relative to the subjects of fish-culture, fish, and fisheries. 

 A record will also be given of what takes place in connection 

 with these subjects throughout the whole of the United King- 

 dom, the colonies, and abroad. 



A STRONG shock of earthquake, lasting several seconds, was 

 felt at Smyrna and in the adjacent districts early on the morn- 

 ing of November 27, and news has been received of Tchesme 

 and Chios having been similarly visited. A strong shock was 

 felt at Tashkend on the morning of November 29, causing 

 damage to many houses in the Russian quarler. Two shocks 

 were felt on Sunday at Somerville and at Charleston. A slight 

 shock was felt in Cairo at half-past four o'clock on the after- 

 noon of the 17th. The vibration lasted several seconds. 



During the past summer. Dr. Fr. Svenonius, the well-known 

 Swedish geologist, has been prosecuting geological, ethnogra- 

 phical, and glacial studies in Swedish Lapland. 



On the evening of November 4 a splendid display of the aurora 

 borealis was seen at Throndhjem, in Norway. Not only the 

 northern, but also the eastern and part of the southern, sky were 

 covered with aurora. The radiation was particularly brilliant 

 from south-west to north-east, forming a wreath in all the 

 colours of the rainbow. During October, several splendid dis- 

 plays of aurora occurred, but none as brilliant as this one. 



On the evening of October 30 a brilliant meteor was seen 

 from the Faloterbo lightship, on the south-west coast of Sweden. 

 It went in a direction south-south-west to north-north-east, ex- 

 ploding, as it seemed, from time to time, and displaying the 

 most brilliant yellow, red, and green light. At times the sky 

 was illuminated as in full moonlight. About a couple of minutes 

 after the last explosion, reports as of guns were heard. At 

 about 2 a.m. of November 5 another splendid meteor was seen 

 at Hamar, in Norway. It went in a southerly direction across 

 Lake Mjosen, and disappeared from view, leaving a long, broad, 

 variegated trail behind. 



Prof. Collett, the well-known Norwegian zoologist, an 

 nounces that the beaver is now extinct in Northern Norway, 



but estimates that about 100 are still in existence in the south, 

 chiefly in the province of Nedenaes. 



A KITCHEN-MIDDEN has just been discovered at Ginnerup, 

 in Denmark, at the foot of a cliff near a dried-up sound. It is 

 about a yard in depth and of considerable extent, and contains 

 quantities of shells of oysters, mussels, &c. 



The last numbers of the jfournal of the China Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society (vol. xxi. Nos. i and 2) contain a " Sym- 

 posium " on the question whether Western knowledge, and 

 especially, of course. Western science, should be conveyed to 

 the Chinese through the medium of their own or of a Western 

 language. Fourteen of the leading European scholars in China 

 took part in the discussion. Their views will not bear classifica- 

 tion under the heads aflfirmative or negative, as some hold a 

 middle place, exhibiting a leaning in one direction or another. 

 The general tendency, however, is in favour of exciting the 

 curiosity and interest of intelligent Chinese in the matter of 

 Western knowledge by popular exposition in the native tongue, 

 while reserving a more adequate representation for a time when 

 a sufficient number of Chinese shall have acquired foreign lan- 

 guages to constitute a learned class in our sense of the expression. 

 A further and final stage will be reached when the members of 

 this class, themselves impregnated with foreign knowledge, shall 

 convey it to their fellow-countrymen in their own tongue, 

 gradually modified to suit the exigencies of doctrines now abso- 

 lutely foreign to the genius of the Chinese language and beyond 

 its capabilities. 



In the course of the discussion, some interesting facts with 

 regard to the translation of scientific terminology into Chinese 

 were mentioned. Dr. Martin, of Pekin, referred to Ricci's old 

 translation of Euclid, which he entitled "The Fundamental 

 Principle of the Science of Quantity." Oxygen, hydrogen, and 

 nitrogen are translated so as to express their characteri-tics of 

 supporting life, of lightness, and of derivation from nitre. On 

 the other hand. Dr. Macgowan mentions that a translator's 

 difficulties in dealing with natural history terms are really enor- 

 mous. He undertook the translation of Dana's " Mineralogy " 

 and Lyell's "Elements of Geology" into Chinee for the Go- 

 vernment, and a scientific native scholar was detailed to assist 

 him. When they came to the plants that have the names of 

 foreign botanists, most of them polysyllabic, they were appalled, 

 and as they could only be rendered phonetically, the native 

 scholar decided against translating any portion of the plant's 

 name, transferring it bodily, according to sound, into Chinese. 

 Similarly, the complex nomenclature of organic chemistry pre- 

 sents a formidable difficulty. A Chinese clergyman, who took 

 part in the discussion, delivered a particularly interesting address, 

 urging that the phonetic method should, as a rule, be employe I, 

 on the ground that the characters used in the translation of 

 scientific terms have traditional meanings to the Chinese mind, 

 and thus great confusion is created. The " term ''-controversy 

 which has agitated theologians in China for the past half-century, 

 and has divided them into two hostile camps appears likely to 

 revive in the domain of science, the question lying be'.wee.i 

 translation or phonetic reproduction. 



From a study of thirty-two years' observations of thunder- 

 storms in the Vienna region. Dr. Hann finds that there is a 

 double maximum of frequency. The greatest number occur in 

 the first half of June, the second smaller maximum is in the 

 end of July; between these is a secondary minimum. (Thunder- 

 storms hardly ever occur in winter.) This agrees with observa- 

 tions in Munich. In Brussels most thunderstorms occur in the 

 second halves of June and July. The daily period in Vienna 

 shows a chief maximum about 3.20 p.m., and a secondary one 

 at 1.2 a.m. The spring and summer storms come mostly from 

 the east or south-east, and seem to belong to Mediterranean 



