6l2 



NATURE 



[April 2%, 1887 



this method of University development. There can be no doubt 

 whatever as to the good work done by University Extension 

 lecturers. Unfortunately, however, it is hard to obtain the funds 

 which are necessary for the complete success of the experiment. 

 One speaker urged that " the University should lead the way by 

 the creation of a Jubilee Fund, and so stimulate local efforts." 

 To this Prof. Rogers replied that the University was "positively 

 poor." Prof. Rogers added that the result of an appeal to Lon- 

 don Companies " had not been favourable," but that the Charity 

 Commissioners might perhaps be willing to do something for the 

 movement. 



The American Exhibition to be opened in the Earl's Court 

 neighbourhood on M.ay 9 will contain much that ought to be of 

 scientific interest. The large encampment of American Indians 

 will be found to contain a great variety of types, and ought to 

 prove attractive to ethnologists. The machinery department 

 will contain many illustrations of the successful applications of 

 science, especially in the section directed to machines for the 

 production and application of electricity. Under mining and 

 metallurgy there will be a large collection of minerals, ore-, and 

 stones, beside, specimens of metallurgical products. In the 

 department of education and science will be found illustrations of 

 the varied educational appliances and apparatus used in the 

 United States, exhibits from the many institutions and organisa- 

 tions which exist in the States, and a very varied collection of 

 scientific and philosophical instruments. 



A NEW scientific journal — Cenlralblatt fiir Physiologie — has 

 made its appearance this month in Germany. It is edited by 

 Dr. S. Exner, of Vienna, and Dr. J. Gad, of Berlin, wlio have 

 the advantage of the co-operation of the Berlin Physiological 

 Society. The journal will be issued once a fortnight. 



A MONUMENT to Galileo has been erected in Rome, on the 

 Via Pincio, fronting the old Medici Palace, now occupied by 

 the French Embassy, where he was kept a prisoner, in 1637, 

 during his prosecution by the Inquisition. The monument con- 

 sists of a column with a pedestal, on which is the following 

 inscription in the Italian language: — "Erected in memory of 

 Galileo Galilei, who was kept a prisoner in this Palace, for 

 having seen that the earth moves round the sun." 



Dr. R. MiiLLER publishes, iu the April number of Mit- 

 thcibtngcn aus deni Gebiete dcs Ser.uesens, the results of an in- 

 vestigation as to whether or not the popular idea of equinoctial 

 gales, the existence of which was contested some time ago as re- 

 gards this country by Mr. Scott (Nature, vol. xxx. p. 353), holds 

 good for the Adriatic Sea. For this purpose the hourly records 

 of the anemometer at Pola, from 1S76 -86, were used. During 

 this period strong winds or gales were registered on 627 days, 

 63 per cent, of which occurred in the winter season (October 

 to March). Tne months with least wind were naturally June 

 and July ; then a tolerably regular increase in the number 

 of days with stormy winds took place till the end of 

 January. A con.siderabIe decrease occurred in Febuiry, while 

 March had the greatest number of stormy days. The result 

 arrived at is that, for the Adriatic, ni important influence can be 

 attributed to the equinoctial seasons, especially during the 

 autumnal equinox. Dr. Miiller also quotes a similar investi- 

 gation made by the Deutsche Seewarte, for the years 1S7S-83, for 

 the German coasts, with nearly similar results ; the percentage of 

 storms for the winter season being 80 per cent., and for the 

 summer season only 20 per cent. The greatest number of 

 storms occurred in November and December, March having 14 

 per cent., and September 3 per cent. only. 



At a recent meeting of the Italian Meteorological Society, re- 

 ported in its Bollettino mensuale for February last, the Committee 

 enumerated the meteorological stations lately established by it 



abroad, via. one in Tripoli, two in the Argentine Republic, three in 

 Uruguay, one in Colombia (South America), and one in Mexico, 

 and notified their intention of shortly establishing others on the 

 Patagonian coasts of the Pacific, and in some of the islands near 

 Cape Horn. Among other matters discussed was the proposed 

 suppression of the Bollettino decadico — which has reached its four- 

 teenth yearly volume, and which contains the observations made 

 at ordinary stations, and at stations in the Alps and Apennines, 

 for decades— as the increasing work of the Society renders its^ 

 publication difficult. The m Dnthly means of these observations 

 appear in the Bollellino mensuale, but the last published are for 

 March 1886. 



On the night of April 12, at about II.30, a brilliant meteor 

 was seen in V;iordalen, in Norway. It appeared in the east, and 

 went in a southerly direction. At first the colour was a pure 

 white, but during the progress of the meteor it changed into 

 green and yellow. The lustre of the body was very bright, and 

 its greatest apparent size was about that of an ordinary plate. 

 On the meteor disappearing from view behind a mountain ridge, 

 a sudden brilliancy seemed to indicate that it had burst into 

 fragments, but no detonation was heard. It left a faint trail of 

 smoke behind, about a few yards in length, wliich remained for 

 a few seconds in the sky, then disappeared. 



On April 13 a shock of earthquake was felt at Lisbon, and in 

 Malta and Sicily. Considerable alarm was caused in Jersey at a 

 few minutes past 3 o'clock on the morning of April 21 by a 

 slight shock of earthquike, the direction of which was from 

 south-west to north-west. There was so loud a noise that at 

 first some persons fancied guns were being fired, .\bout the 

 same time a smart shock of earthquake was experienced in 

 Guernsey. A decided tremor of the earth, lasting about three 

 seconds, and accompanied by a rumbling noise, was felt in all 

 parts of the island. 



The death is announced of Dr. Nathaniel Lieberkiihn, Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy at the University of Marburg, on April 14, 

 at the age of sixty-five ; and of Herr J. B. Obernetter, well 

 known by his researches in photographic chemistry, on April 13, 

 at the age of forty-seven. 



A New Guinea Exhibition will shortly be opened at 

 Bremen. 



Messrs. R. Friedlander and Son, of Berlin, send us 

 the first quarterly list for 1SS7 of their new publication;. It 

 includes many valuable works in natural history and the exact 

 sciences. 



The scheme for the formation of a North Sea Fisheries 

 Institute is still under the consideration of the National Fish- 

 Culture Association and of various local authorities, by whom 

 efforts are being made to secure the necessary funds. It is pro- 

 posed to form a Fish-Culture Station at CIcethorpes, and schools 

 at Grimsby, and to carry out scientific obsei-vations wherever 

 the conditions seem to be most favourable. Particular attention 

 is to be given to the culture of the oyster and cod. A meeting 

 has lately been held in London to advance the undertaking, and 

 another is to take place shortly at Grimsby for the same jjurpose. 



The list of elements whose atomic weights have been deter- 

 mined with great accuracy has just received two valuable 

 additions, for although one of them, silicon, is by no means rare 

 in its occurrence in nature, and the other, gold, is neither among 

 the most recently discovered of metals nor rare from the chemist's 

 point of view, yet past determinations of the atomic weights of 

 these important elements have resulted in leaving the subject 

 enshrouded with considerable ambiguity. Prof. Thorpe and 

 Mr. J. W. Young, who have recently determined the atomic 

 weight of silicon, used for this purpose the tetrabromide SiBr^, 



