376 



NA TURE 



[Feb. 17, I ! 



A French ti-anslatioii has just been issued of Preyei's 

 "Physiology of the Embryo." This book is a valuable one, 

 dealing with a very obscure subject, and also one of great interest 

 to the physician as well as to the psychologist and physiologist. 

 All the functions of the adult being are in turn considered in the 

 embryo, the differences and similitudes being well pointed out. 

 M. Preyer understands the value of a good method. 



MM. Charcot and Richer have issued an interesting book 

 on " Les Demoniaqiies dans I'Art," that is, on hysteria studied 

 in art manifestations of the past. The book contains quite a 

 number of pictures after the old masters, which show that all 

 the convulsions and attributes due to hysteria had been noticed 

 and accurately pictured, although the manifestations were 

 ascribed to diabolical influence The scenes figured in this 

 book relate especially to exorcising and similar feats, and very 

 well illustrate the power of observation of many of the old 

 p.Tinters. 



A NEW medical paper is to be published shortly in Paris, 

 under Prof. Gr.mcher's direction, at a very low price, con- 

 taining much matter and appearing twice a week. It will be 

 called the Univers Miiiical, and the [editor intends to devote a 

 much larger part to foreign news than is usually given in 

 French papers. 



M. DuCLAUX, Professor in the Faculty of Science=, issued on 

 February 12 the first number of a new scientific periodical, the 

 Annates de V Instilut Pasteur, of which he is editor, with a 

 Committee comprising Messrs. Chamberland, Grancher, Nocard, 

 Roux, and Straus. This periodical is to be published monthly, and 

 will contain papers on bacteriology, physiologically and clinic- 

 ally considered. The first number contains a letter from Pasteur, 

 giving very encouraging and positive facts concerning the effi- 

 cacy of preventive inoculations, obtained in his own laboratory 

 and in those of Russia and Italy. 



Herr \V. Engelmann, of Leipzig, has issued the first num- 

 ber of a monthly scientific periodical called Zeitschrijt fur 

 pliysittalischc Chanie. The editors are Profs. W. Ostwald, of 

 Riga, and J. H. van't Hoff", of Amsterdam. 



According to the American Meteorological yournal, an 

 attempt is about to be made at St. Augustine, Flo., to sink a 

 12-inch artesian well to a depth sufficient to obtain water hot 

 enough to heat buildings, pure enough for domestic purposes, 

 and with pressure enough to run heavy machinery. Water can 

 be found in Florida by boring 250 feet ; and it is known that 

 the artesian wells in that State have considerable pressure, and 

 from a depth of 600 feet send water of warm temperature to a 

 height of 45 feet when piped. The earth's internal heat is 

 already forced into practical service at Pesth, where the deepest 

 artesian well in the world is being sunk to supply hot water for 

 public baths and other purposes. This well supplies daily 

 176,000 gallons of water heated to 158° F., and the boring is to 

 be continued until the temperature of the water is raised to 176". 

 Heavy machinery is run by artesian well power in many parts of 

 France, and the experience of the French shows that the deeper 

 the well the greater the pressure and the higher the temperature. 

 At Crenelle, a well sunk to the depth of 1802 feet, and flowing 

 daily 500,000 gallons, has a pressure of 60 lbs. to the square 

 inch, and the water from this well is so hot that it is used for 

 heating the hospitals in the vicinity. 



There is now ample evidence that the use of oil may be of 

 considerable service in lessening the effect of dangerous seas. In 

 one case the "slick " made by the oil extended 30 feet to wind- 

 ward, and the U.S. Hydrographic Office concludes that the oil 

 is of use when the vessel is reaching ahead at the speed of eight 

 or nine knots, with a beam wind and sea. 



Herr Schiller, a well-known German architect, reports 

 some facts which are of interest as indicating the radius of the 

 circle of protection of good lightning-rods. On June 17 last, 

 at the village of Mottingen, lightning struck a pear-tree 33 feet 

 high. On one side, 115 feet away, was a school-house, with a 

 rod 56 feet high. On the other side was a church, 328 feet 

 away, and having a lightning-rod reaching up 154 feet. Both 

 rods are well placed, and had worked well when tested, and the 

 level of the foot of the tree is about the same as that of the two 

 buildings. It is evident, then, if the facts have been accurately 

 reported, that the radius of the circle of protection is not more 

 than twice the height of the rod. 



Another earthquake is reported from Aqulla. On the night 

 of February 3, three shocks were felt, two of which were accom- 

 panied by strong undulatory motion. 



Earthquakes are also reported from the Vilayet Konia, in 

 Asia Minor. On January 8, a subsidence of the ground was 

 noticed at Holan Gola (Feneke district), accompanied with loud 

 subterranean noises ; many landslips took place in the adjacent 

 hills. The shocks continued for six days, and the inhabitants of 

 Feneke and the neighbouring villages took refuge in the fields. 

 The earthquakes have destroyed seven villages. 



On January 15 the Hawaiian volcano Mauna L^a began to 

 discharge. Frequent shocks of earthquake were felt. A letter 

 written on January 19 says : — " There have been thirty -six hours' 

 continuous earthquakes. The lava flows down the south slope, 

 and if its course be unchanged it will flow into the sea without 

 doing much damage." 



The Russian traveller M. Ogorodnikoff was told at Meshed 

 that there are tin mines near that city and in various parts of 

 Khorassan. In an article in the Revue Scientifique M. Berthe- 

 lot points out that this accords with a passage in Strabo, who 

 speaks (book xv. ch. ii. 10) of tin mines in Drangiana, the 

 ancient name for the region now called Southern Khorassan. If 

 there really have been tin mines in this district from time imme- 

 morial, there can be little doubt that they supplied the tin for 

 the bronzes of ancient Egypt and Assyria. 



The first zoological station in the tropics has been founded by 

 Dr. Sluiter, at Batavia. This gentleman is already well known 

 by his works on the fauna of the Sunda Islands. The Natural 

 History Society of the Dutch Indies has presented Dr. Sluiter 

 with sufficient means to establish three work-tables with the 

 necessary apparatus, and to purchase a sailing-boat. 



Mr. Abbott Kinney writes to the Los Angeles Weekly 

 Tribune that the floods in Southern California are becoming 

 every year more violent and destructive. The testimony on this 

 point, he says, is uniform, complete, and unimpeachable. The 

 streams now nearly all bring down more sand, gravel, and 

 boulders, rise more rapidly, cut away more land, and dry up 

 more quickly than formerly. Valuable valley lands are thus cut 

 away or covered up, and in some cases the streams have spread out 

 and deposited great fan-shaped mounds of sand and boulders. Mr. 

 Kinney attributes the change chiefly to the destruction of forests. 

 The brush and forests on the hills and mountains have been to a 

 large extent swept away, and the result is that there is nothing 

 to hold the water back. The rains do not penetrate into the 

 soil and rocks which supply the springs, but rush suddenly oft" the 

 mountains as from a roof, carrying the soil first, and then the 

 gravel and boulders with them. The springs, deprived of their 

 supply, diminish. The principal agentin the destruction of the 

 natural verdure and protection of the mountains has been fire. 

 Fires accidentally lighted, fires made by stock-men, bee-men. 

 and fools, are, according to Mr. Kinney, producing effects that 

 must eventually make Southern California a desert. 



