292 



NA TURE 



{July 29, 1S80 



or over, not one is considered to have components of the same 

 colour. And of tlie forty-two pairs which are said to be of 

 different colour all but two liave more yellow in the brighter, so 

 much so indeed that it is possible to suppose that the difference 

 of briglitnes is the chief cause of the difference of colour. The 

 two exceptions are : — 



No. 23. c Boolis A. eq. Ca;rulea B. eq. Ca:rulea 

 No. 42. 02 507 A. Blanche B. Cendriolivatre 



There is evidently some error about No. 23. Either the 

 colours are wrong, or it is wrongly stated to have differently 

 coloured components. In No. 42 it is difficult to say which 

 component is more yellow. Although, then, it is certain that 

 other causes largely affect the colours of stars, yet differences of 

 brightness seem to have the greatest effect in producing the 

 apparent differences in the colours of double-stars. 



Prof. Holden compares the colours of bright and faint stars to 

 those of a more or less hot incandescent body. But in the latter 

 case the dimmer light is accompanied with redness. We l;now 

 that this is not the case with tlie light of our own sun ; for of a 

 \vhite surface, upon part of which the sun shines, while the rest 

 is in shadow, the darker part is bluer. In the same way, of the 

 forty binaries of which the brighter component is the yellower, 

 there are thirty-seven in which the fainter is bluer, and only 

 three in which it is distinctly redder. It appears, therefore, that 

 most double-stars do not differ greatly in colour from our sun, 

 and do not shine with the strongly red light of an incandescent 

 solid. C. S. Peirce 



Paris, July 20 



Coffee-Disease in New Granada 



The following information about v.hat appears to be a new 

 disease of the coffee-tree is taken from an official letter written 

 on April 29 last by Mr. C. Michelsen, Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture at Bogota, to Mr. Jose Herrer.i, Vice-consul of New 

 Granada in this city, who sent me a copy of it, requesting me 

 to give him my opinion about the disease. 



At first there appear on the leaves small spots of a light- 

 greenish colour, which in two or three days turn brownish, 

 and then appears on each of them a fungus dhidi-d in thru or 

 more greenish-yclloiu branches. This fungus is said to be phos- 

 phorescent at night, and in places lahere it is very common a 

 phosphoric smell is noted (!) After some days the diseased leaves 

 fall off; the fruits, which also are attacked by the parasite, 

 follow very soon, and the trees are left quite bare. They form, 

 however, new leaves after some months, but these are again 

 attacked by the fungus. 



The disease is reported to be more frequent in damp places 

 than in dry ones, its ravages being greatest in plantations where 

 the trees are planted rather close. The fungus has alsoattacked 

 the shade trees, especially iX\t guamos (Inga sp.). 



Though the description is far from being satisfactory, I think 

 it is pretty clear that the fungus is not the IJemileia vaslatrix of 

 Ceylonese celebrity. However it bears a great resemblance to 

 it, so that I recommended to employ fumigations with sulphur 

 under the kind of large umbrella proposed by Mr. George Wall 

 (Nature, vol. xix. p. 423). The unusually rainy weather in 

 the last year has very likely much to do with the spread of the 

 disease, which at the same time is a new proof of the eminently 

 fatal consequences resulting from close planting. 



I have asked for dried specimens of diseased leaves, in order 

 to submit them for examination to a competent mycologist. 



Caracas, June 26 A. Ernst 



Toughened Glass 



Prodably the accident mentioned by Mr. Noble Taylor is not 

 exceptional, as a similar one happened to a member of my own 

 family. She was about to take a seidlitz-pouder, and had poured 

 the contents of the blue paper into a tumbler of toughened glass 

 half filled with cold w ater, and was stirring it gently to make 

 the powder dissolve, when the tumbler flew into pieces with a 

 sharp report. There was no fire or lamp in the room at the 

 Ume. Some of the fragments flew to a distance of three or four 

 feet. The bottom of the tumbler was not altogether fractured, 

 but cracked into a number of little 5quare=, which could be 

 separated readily. T. B. Sprague 



tdniburgh, July 20 



The same accident occurred to me a few nights ago as hap- 

 pened to your correspondent, and 1 cannot help thinking that 

 the spoon had most to do with the phenomenon. 



In a hot room I had just finished what is usually called a 

 "lemon squash," ?.:^., the juice of a lemon and a little white 

 sugar, with a bottle of soda-water, a lump of ice being put 

 into the mixture. I was talking at the time, and so held the 

 empty glass with a spoon in it in my hand for a second or two, 

 when suddenly it went off in my hand into thousands of pieces, 

 none larger than an inch or so. 



I picked up one of the largest and thickest pieces, and found 

 it to be so thoroughly disintegrated that I broke it up with my 

 fingers into about a hundred small pieces, and might have done 

 more. This disintegration seems to be a natural property of 

 toughened glass when broken, but I never before saw a case of 

 its breaking up without being strnck. I do not think that usually 

 such occurrences are dangerous, on account of the entire destrnc- 

 tion of the fabric. J. C. J. 



Large Hailstones 



On Tuesday, July 13, at 2.30 p.m., hail began to fall heavily 

 in this_ neighbourhood. A thunderstorm was at the time ap- 

 proaching rapidly from the north-east. I was struck with the 

 extraordinary size of the stones, and going into the open air I 

 collected six — the first that came to hand — in an accurately-tared 

 glass, and weighed rapidly. The six stones weighed 5'766grams. 

 The average weight for each stone was therefore '961 gram, or 

 I4'8 grains. A pane of glass in a skylight window had a hole 

 driven through it by one hail-stone. George Paterson 



Borax Works, Old Swan, Liverpool, July 14 



Chatel, Jersey. — Please send exact address. 



V 



PAUL BROCA 



'T^HE sudden death of the eminent French anthropolo- 

 ■*■ gist, Dr. Paul Broca, which we announced a fortnight 

 since, is an irreparable loss to science, and for the French 

 medical and anthropological schools particularly. 



Prof. Broca, born in 182431 Ste.Foy la Grande (Gironde), 

 was a senator, vice-president of the Academy of Medicine, 

 officer of the Legion of Honour, and member of several 

 learned societies. Since 1S46, the year in which he was 

 promoted Aide d'anatomie, till 1880, when he died as a 

 professor of surgery, during nearly thirty-four years the 

 life of Dr. Broca has been an uninterrupted consecration 

 to science. A rapid review of his scientific work, espe- 

 cially of what he did for anthropology, will show how 

 indefatigable was his zeal, how well his life has been 

 spent. 



Broca's publications on various subjects in anatomy, 

 surgery, and anthropology are innumerable, especially his 

 contributions to the last-mentioned subject. One has only 

 to open the numerous volumes of the Bulletins of the 

 Paris Anthropological Society, of the Mciiioircs and the 

 Revue d' Antliropologie and other scientific journals, to 

 get an idea of Broca's immense activity. In 1856 he 

 published his famous "Traitd des Andurismes," which, 

 with his "Traitd des Tumeurs," published in 1S66, constitute 

 his principal medical works. The former opened a new 

 era in the treatment of these affections ; in the latter 

 Broca expounded the historical evolution of the know- 

 ledge of tumours and their treatment in so able a manner 

 that it has hitherto not been surpassed. 



In 1S61 Broca made his remarkable discovery of the 

 seat of articulate language at the third frontal convo- 

 lution of the left side of the brain. Moreover in later 

 yeirs Broca devoted himself to the study of the brains 

 of man and animals, greatly contributing to our know- 

 ledge on that subject. The Revue d'Authropologie con- 

 tains many of the results of these studies ; for instance, 

 " Sur la Topographic cranio-cdrebrale," "Etude sur Ic 

 Cerveau du Gorille," "Anatomic comparde des Circon- 

 volutions cerdbrales," "Localisations cdrebrales," &c. 



