352 



NATURE 



\^Feb. lo, i< 



We notice in one of the morning papers that considerable 

 progress is being made at the grea; Lam1]eth factory of Messrs. 

 Maudslay, Sons, and Field, with the large compound engines 

 which are being prepared for the new Italian armour-clad 

 // Re Umberto. According to the contract, these engines are to 

 be of 19,500 horse-power, which is about 7500 horse-power more 

 than that of any vessel yet designed for the British Navy. It is 

 stated that they will actually indicate 21,000 horse-power, or 

 9000 more than any vessel in the British Navy. These engines, 

 completely made of steel, are expected to drive the II Ke Uml'erto, 

 fully equipped, about 20 knots per hour. 



Mr. C. C. Lacaita is taking charge of the Sanitary Regis- 

 tration of Buildings Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill 

 as introduced in 1886 consisted of ten sections, and, it will be 

 remembered, made the sanitary registration of all buildings com- 

 pulsory in towns of 50,000 inhabitants and upwards. The new 

 Bill consists of seventeen sections, and is to apply to all towns or 

 districts of 2000 inhabitants, but it is only t ) be compulsory in 

 the case of schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums, hotels, and 

 lodging-houses. An important feature of the new Bill is that 

 the local authorities will have to keep a Sanitary Register, in 

 which any building certified in accordance with the proposed 

 Act may be registered, so that a stranger visiting any district 

 would be able to ascertain at the office of the local authority 

 whether any particular house was or was not certified as in a 

 satisfactory sanitary condition. The new Bill will, no doubt, be 

 more acceptable to sanitary experts, seeing that all persons 

 entitled to certify must first obtain a license from the Local 

 Government Board, and provision is made for the appointment 

 of examining Boards. Persons entitled to sign certificates are 

 designated Licentiates in Sanitary Practice. 



The town of Biku was recently threatened with destruction 

 by the sudden outburst of a natural naphtha fountain. This was 

 soon followed by a volcanic eruption from Lok Botan, close to 

 the Ponta railway station, and about ten miles from Baku. The 

 eruption began on the night of January 15, when the inhabitants 

 of Baku were alarmed by a shock like that of an explosion, 

 which made all their window-panes tremble violently, while 

 towards the south-west the sky was illuminated by an intense 

 light, as of some terrific conflagration. The following informa- 

 tion, furnished by the railway officials of the Ponta station, 

 appeared in a telegram from the St. Petersburg Correspondent of 

 'he Times on Monday last : — "Quite suddenly, at eleven o'clock 

 at night, the noise of an explosion was heard, and the summit of 

 Lok Botan shot up an enormous column of fire some 350 feet 

 high. The whole country was instantly lit up brighter than day, 

 and the heat could be felt at nearly a mile from the crater. There 

 was scarcely any wind, so that the column continued to ascend 

 quite vertically, carrying with it, as could be seen, large dark 

 substances which appeared to fall again into the volcano. This 

 lasted «ith short intervals of subsidence all through the night 

 and the following twenty-four hours, but luckily the matters 

 ejected did not reach the railway station." The Times Corre- 

 spondent says that the volume of muddy liquid thrown out is 

 estiriated at half a million cubic sojencs — the Russian sojene 

 equalling 7 feet — a'ld has spread itself over more than a square 

 mile to a depth of from 7 to 14 feet. 



On the night of January 26 a brilliant meteor was observed at 

 Holmestrand, on the south-east coast of Norway. It went from 

 south-west to novth-east, at a rapid pace, and disappeared below 

 the horizon. The light was an intense white, iUuminating for a 

 few seconds the whole town as in broad daylight. 



A STATUE is to be erected at Christiania in honour of the 

 celebrated mathematician Abel, subscriptions being raised 

 towards it from all parts of Europe. 



The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society have 

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

 sion of the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers), on 

 March 15 to 18 next, an Exhibition of Marine Meteorological 

 Instruments and Apparatus. The Exhibition Committee are 

 anxious to obtain as large a collection as possible of such instru- 

 ments ; and they will be glad to show any new meteorological 

 instruments or apparatus invented or first constructed since last 

 March, as well as photographs and drawings possessing meteoro- 

 logical interest. 



Mr. John Murray, of the Challenger Expedition Office, 

 Edinburgh, writes to us that the passage placed within inverted 

 commas in one of our Notes on Jan. 27 was not a quotation from 

 his address to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. We may explain 

 that the passage was quoted from what professes to be " a 

 condensed report of the address " in the January number of 

 the Scotlish Geographieal J\/agaiinc. In this " condensed report " 

 Mr. Murray is represented as having said that " money grants of 

 considerable annual value are devoted to the maintenance of 

 learned Societies in London and Dublin." Our only object was 

 to point out that so far as London is concerned this statement is 

 misleading. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Black-winged Peafowl (Pavo nigi ipcniiis 9 ) 

 from Cochin China, presented by Mr. John Marshall ; a Cayenne 

 Lapwing ( Vanellus cayennensis) from South America, purchased ; 

 six Long-fronted Gerbilles {Gerbillus longlfrons), born in the 

 Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Comet Brooks (1887 b). — This object was observed at Paris 

 on January 27 as a circular nebulosity of about i'*5 in diameter, 

 with a small but fairly bright nucleus, almost st-Ilar in appear- 

 ance, and situated not quite in the centre of the coma. The 

 comet was estimated as of the 12th magnitude. 



Dr. Rud. Spitaler, Vienna Observatory, has computed the 

 following elements and ephemeris : — 



T = 1S87 March 23 01985 Berlin M.T. 



TT = 89 26 17 1 



a = 283 o 15 • Mean Eq. 1887-0 



I = 102 25 29 \ 

 log (/ = o ■ 1 902 1 



Error of middle place (O - C). 



clK cos /3 = -f 9", (//3 = - 5". 



Ephemeris for Berlin MiJiiight 

 1S87 R.A. Decl. log A log r Brightness 



Feb. 12 15934 +73 5 6 007734 0-21040 1-39 

 16 2 35 23 68 19-5 008193 0-20660 1-39 



20 2 59 23 63 27-4 009016 0-20314 1-36 



24 3 16 58 58 41-5 0-IOI54 0-20007 1-31 

 28 33042 -1-54 9-1 0-II553 0-19744 1-25 

 The brightness on January 25 is taken as unity. 



Comet Barnard (1887 c). — Barnard's comet was observed at 

 Paris on January 26, and seemed to be of much the same bright- 

 ness and dimensions as Brooks's couiet appeared on the following 

 night, but it differed somewhat as to its nucleus, there being a 

 central condensation forming a diffused nucleus about 4" or 5 " i" 

 diameter. The comet is steadily diminishing in brightness. The 

 following elements and ephemeris are by Prof. E. Weiss : — 



T = 1886 November 23-6302 Berlin M.T. 



TT = 284 27 58 ; 



a = 257 14 17 > Mean Eq. 1SS7-0, 

 . = 85 22 5 ) 

 log</ = 0-15454 

 Error of middle places (0 - C). 



A\ cos ;3 -I- 4" - 3", A5 - 1" - 9' • 



