yune lo, iSSo] 



NATURE 



i3r 



M. Bresse has been elected to fill the place vacated by the 

 death of General Morin in the Section of Mechanics of the Paris 

 Academy of Science?. 



The Vesuvius railway was opened on the 6th inst. with much 

 ceremony. It was found to work with perfect satisfaction. 



An experiment with Jamin's electric candle was made on a 

 large scale at the works of the Compagn'e Generale d'Electricite, 

 67, Avenue du Marine, Pari*, on June 3. About 1,900 people 

 had been invited, amongst them the principal authorities of the 

 French Republic. The light was found steady, but it remains 

 to be seen whether the expense is smaller than with other systems, 

 and the apparatus can work during a series of days. The candles 

 are moved by a combination analogous to Wild's patent. The 

 weight of wire utilised for each of these frames is 600 to 

 700 gi-ammes, which shows a length of about 80 metres. M. 

 Jamin wants tension for working his candles, and his Gramme 

 machines rotated with a very great velocity. The scene 

 was very picturesque and the general impression was good, 

 although not enthusiastic, as has been reported in several 

 political papers. 



The Swiss Naturalists Association have decided to erect the 

 Meteorological Observatory, the establishment of which was 

 recommended to them by the International Meteorological 

 Congress which met at Rome la^t year, upon the Santis 

 Mountain, in the canton of Appenzell. This peak is better 

 adapted for the purposes of meteorological observation than any 

 other one in Switzerland, on account of its comparatively isolated 

 position. The observatory will cost about 320/., besides which 

 360/. will be spent annually for its maintenance and staff. 



Mr. G. H. Kinahan writes us that a wooden hut has been 

 discovered lately under sixteen feet of bog by Thos. Plunkett, 

 M.R.I.A., of Enniskillen. It is remarkable that this structure 

 is at the same depth as the similar structure found at Drumkelin, 

 and described by Wilde in the Catalogue of the Royal Irish 

 Academy. 



A LARGE crowd is attracted every night to the Palais de 

 rindustrie, Paris, where are burning regularly 400 Jablockhoff 

 lights, on the occasion of the Exposition des Beaux Arts, a floral 

 exhibition having taken place in the nave from Juae I to 10, the 

 scene in the nave surpassing description. 



Electric light experiments on a large scale will be conducted 

 with Wild candles at the Universal Exhibition of Melun. The 

 gardens will be opened every night and lighted by electricity. 



An international exhibition was opened at Brussels on June i 

 by the king. It is a private speculation, which must not be 

 confounded with the national exhibition which will be opened 

 on June 19, and is the only official display in the capital of 

 Belgium. 



M. Marche has invented in Paris a new telephone, which he 

 calls electrophone, and v/hich works W'ith an induction coil. 

 The induction current is sent from a distance which is sa d to be 

 very large, and the hearing is said to be satisfactory. 



M. Cailleret, a telegraphist of Lille (Nord), discovered a 

 new method of rotating the electro-magnetic gyroscope with any 

 induction coil. It is to employ the thin wire as an inductor, and 

 the thick one for sending the induction current to the coil. 



A PROSPECTING party, despatched by the Queensland Govern- 

 ment, is stated to have discovered a very rich gold-field on the 

 Sefton River in the north of the colony. An examination of the 

 country along the east coast of Cape York Peninsula has not, 

 however, proved successful. 



It is stated that at Wickham, about loo miles south of 

 Sydney, New South Wales, two surface bands of metallic stone 

 of considerable width have just been discovered. On analysis it 

 is found that there is a large amount of gold and silver in one of 

 these, while the other contains over 60 per cent, of iron with 

 traces only of gold. A large and enormously valuable diamond 

 is also said to have been discovered in the same locality. 



The Naples correspondent of the Daily News states that 

 twelve miles south of Sciacca, on the coast of Sicily, an exceed- 

 ingly rich bank of corals has been discovered, which is even 

 more important than the one found in 1S76 in the same waters. 



Me. David Bogue has now at press and will shortly publish 

 a new work, viz., " Birds, Fishes, and Cetacea of Belfast Lough,' 

 by Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson, vice-president of Belfast Natural 

 History Society, and president of Belfast Chamber of Commerce, 

 son of the late Robert Patterson, F.R.S. The book will form 

 an interesting and valuable addition to this branch cf natural 

 history. 



A terrible forest fire took place in the Harz Mountains on 

 Jlay 27 last. The whole forest of the Great Jiigelsberg, near 

 Goslar, is destroyed. 



The forty-fourth general meeting of the Saxon and Thuringian 

 Natural History Society took place at Nordhausen on May 18 

 and 19 last. The 'Society nimibers between 300 and 400 

 members. 



The nights of May iS and ig were fatal to almost all vine- 

 yards on the banks of the Rhine and its tributaries. The young 

 shoots on most cf the vines were killed by the frost, which was 

 intense. 



An interesting novelty in the Gennan book-market is "Upilio 

 Faimali, Jlemoiren eines Thierbandigers," collected by Paul 

 Mantegazza. It is published by Winter, of Heidelberg. Faimali 

 was one of the few tamers of wild animals who gained universal 

 reputation. The book contains interesting narratives of his 

 numerous adventures with various beasts. 



On May II last the statue of the late M. Quetelet wasimveilei 

 in the gardens of the Brussels Academy buildings. He is repre- 

 sented in a sitting pasture, his left hand rests upon a large 

 celestial globe, and he holds a pen in his right. The expressive 

 features are said to be an excellent likeness. 



A CURIOUS survival of media:val superstition has cropped up 

 in a rumour which obtains credence in the West of England, that 

 Balmaiii's luminous paint is prepared wiih human fa', in order 

 to give it its phosphorescent properties ! 



On the Schleswig coast in the Little Belt the establishment of 

 oyster beds is engaging the active attention of the authorities. 

 One million and a half of small oysters have been "sown out " 

 between the Gjenner Bay and the Danish frontier near Heils- 

 minde. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Winnecke's Comet.— In No. 2,314 of the As'.rctwmischi 

 N^achrichten Prof. v. Oppolzer has a note of more than ordmary 

 interest on the motion ot this body as investigated by his own 

 calculations. He states that it results from his computation of 

 the perturbations with the object of connecting the three appear- 

 ances of 1858, 1S69, and 1875 that a satisfactory agreement 

 cannot be found «ithout one of t«o hypotheses ; either the mass 

 of Tupiter must be diminished to t.-s'it. or I'^^f^ is a necessity of 

 admittiu'r the existence of a similar extraordinary influence upon 

 the motion of this comet to that first pointed out by Encke in 

 the motion of the comet which bears his name. Prof. Oppolzer 

 finds an acceleration in the mean daily sidereal motion of o '01439 

 after one revolution, a result which, he remarks, is in close accord- 

 ance with his earlier one, deduced by a provisional calculation of 



