276 



NATURE 



VJnly 



1, li 



has offered to allow the Oldham Corporation to have care of it, 

 and make a charge to visitors, the money to be applied towards a 

 public museum. No doubt the Corporation will accept this 

 handsome offer. 



At the Rheims meeting of the French Association M. Gariel 

 will give a public lecture on Radiant Matter, with Mr. Crookes' 

 experiments, and M. Perier on the Law of Selection. Tlie 

 meeting of 1881 will be held at Algiers, and an excellent paper 

 has been published in connection therewith by M. Macarthy, 

 president of the Society of Natural Sciences of Algiers. This 

 physicist settled in Algiers thirty years ago, and holds the posi- 

 tion of librarian of the National Library of Algiers ; in his 

 brochure he reviewed all the different topics which might be 

 submitted to the several sections of the Association. 



A VIOLENT shock of earthquake occun-ed at Manila and 

 throughout the Island of Luzon on July iS, which did immense 

 damage, totally destroying several government buildings and 

 other houses. Some of the native inhabitants were killed, but 

 no Europeans suffered any injury. A sliglit sliock was felt also 

 on the 17th iust. 



On July 14 the French Chamber of Deputies adopted a pro- 

 position of M. Lockroy, that a sum of 3,700,000 francs 

 originally intended to rebuild the Palace of the Tuileries should be 

 devoted to enlarge the national library, which will be quite 

 isolated from other houses. The sanction of the Senate will 

 be asked next session, but not a single representative having 

 objected, the result is not dubious, and preparatory steps will be 

 taken very shortly to execute this great measure of preservation 

 and improvement. 



In an interesting article on " Mistakes about Snakes," by Mr. 

 Arthur Stradling, in the Field oi the 17th inst., the author gives 

 an exposS of the famous Indian basket trick, in which a boy is 

 shut up in a basket and apparently"|put to death by sword- 

 thrusts, but suddenly appears among the company uninjured. 

 The narrative is too long for quotation, and we recommend our 

 readers to obtain a perusal of the original. 



The following is the title of the essay to which the " Howard 

 Medal" of the Statistical Society will be awarded in November, 

 1881. The essays to be sent in on or before June 30, iSSl. 

 " On the Jail Fever, from the earliest Black Assize to the last 

 recorded outbreak in recent times." The Council have decided 

 to grant the sum of 20/. to the writer who may gain the 

 "Howard Medal" in November, 18S1. Further particulars or 

 explanations may be obtained from the Assistant Secretary, at 

 the office of the Society, King's College entrance, Strand, 

 London, W.C. 



M. Herv£-Mangon, the director of the Conservatoire des 

 Arts et Metiers, has compiled a catalogue of the celebrated Vau- 

 causon collection ; it will be very shortly placed at the disposal 

 of the public in the Portefeuille Industriel, a special library 

 opened in the Conservatoire for the communication of designs 

 and documents relating to industry. The course of public 

 experiments is attracting an unprecedented number of visitors to 

 the galleries. Every week a programme of the exhibits is postal 

 on the walls outside the buildings. 



The Manchester Scientific Students' Association is a busy 

 society, as its Report for 1S79 shows. It contains reports not 

 only of various lectures and papers read at its meetings, but 

 interesting accounts of the numerous excursions made by the 

 members ; these are occasionally illustrated, the illustrations 

 being sometimes rather rude. 



Supplement No. 5 to the U.S. National Board of Heallh 

 Bulletin contains a report of the proceedings at a conference on 



Vital Statistics held at Washington on May 6 last. There is 

 an interesting discussion on the subject of a Standard Nomen- 

 clature, with special reference to that adopted by the Royal 

 College of Physicians of England ; and appended is a very 

 detailed nomenclature of ophthalmology and otology, by Dr. 

 S. M. Burnett, of Washington. 



Among the papers in the forthcoming number (vol. iii. No. I) 

 of the American Journal of Mathematics are the following : — 

 " Regular Figures in ?;-Dimensional Space," by W. J. String- 

 ham ; " On the Algebra of Logic," by C. S. Peirce ; "On the 

 General Equations of Electromagnetic Action, with Application 

 to a New Theory of Magnetic Attraction, and to the Theory 

 of the Magnetic Rotation of the Plane of Polarisation of Light," 

 by H. A. Rowland ; " On Certain Ternary Cubic-form Equa- 

 tions," by Prof. Sylvester. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macaciis erythrtrus) from 

 India, presented by Mrs. C. Salvin ; a Common Badger (Meles 

 ta.viis), British, presented by Mr. Frank G. Haines ; a Huanaco 

 {Lama huanacos) from Bolivia, a Common Rhea (R/iea ameri- 

 caiia) from South America, presented by the Marquis of Queens- 

 berry ; a Common Paradoxure (Paradoxnrus typtis) from India, 

 presented by Col. Sturt; four Ring-tailed Coatis (Nasua rufa) 

 from South America, presented by Lieut. -Col. J. A. Smith, 

 1st AV.I. Regt. ; a Common Hedgehog (Erinaccus europaus), 

 British, a Greek Land Tortoise (Tcstudo gr,eca), European, pre- 

 sented by Mr. L. C. Brook ; two American Darters (Plotus 

 aiihiitga) from Brazil, presented by Mr. Gerald Waller ; a 

 Coffin's Cockatoo (Cacatua goffini) from Queensland, presented 

 by Miss Bartlett ; two Red-legged Partridges {Caccabis rufa), 

 two Common Buzzards (Buteo vulgans), European, presented by 

 Mr. W. H. St. Quintin ; a Common Heron (Ardea cinerea), 

 European, deposited; a Common Seal (PJioca vitulina), British 

 Seas, two Japanese Pheasants {Phasianus ■versicolor') from Japan, 

 a Bar-tailed Pheasant (Phasianus reez'esi) from North China, 

 purchased ; a Burchell's Zebra (Ejuus lurchelli) from South 

 Africa, received in exchange ; two Lions (Felis leo), an Eland 

 (Oreas cauna), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Comet of 1668. — There is one point in the history of 

 this comet which we do not remember to have seen mentioned 

 since its supposed reappearance in 1843 revived the attention 

 that was directed to it early in the last century, and it is one 

 which, if accepted, bears materially upon the question of identity. 

 Pingre has no reference to it in the account of the comet of 1668 

 in his " Cometographie.'' In the report of the observations 

 made by the French Jesuit Valentin Estancel at San Salvador, 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 105 (1674, July 20), 

 which is stated to be a translation from the Giornalc dc' Lctterati, 

 No. 9, published at Rome in September, 1673, ^^■e read after the 

 description of the evening observations commencing March $, 

 i65S: — " It maybe taken notice of that a month before, upon a 

 report that a comet Iiad been seen towards the morning in the 

 horiron of the rising sun, and certain Carmelites that live upon 

 a hillock of the said town having affirmed that they liad observed 

 it several times, our P. Estancel began to doubt whether the 

 comet he saw were not the same which, more swift than the sun, 

 according to the succession of the signs, might within that time 

 have got clear of the solar rays ; and his suspicion grew the 

 stronger because the head was then turned towards the sun and 

 the tail towards the west, opposite to the same." But if the 

 comet of 1843 were in perihelion near the time which Henderson 

 found it necessary to assume in order to satisfy the indications of 

 his Goa chart, it would not have preceded the sun in the first 

 week in February, but would have had considerably greater 

 right ascension, so as to be visible only in the evening. Hen- 

 derson's direct orbit, however, which upon the whole accords 

 much better with his data, would place the comet in R.A. 311°, 

 Deck - 7^° on February 5, at I7h. San Salvador time, so that it 

 would precede the sim, which was then in R.A. 320^ 



