Atignsf 12, 1880] 



NA TURE 



345 



proportionally the heaviest part of him) are near to S, and 

 his centre of gravity is therefore comparatively near to 

 the pivot about which the combination is going to revolve. 

 Hence while b sinks, R rises, and as he performs his 



flight through the air over the head of S the silken strings 

 gradually bring his feet forward until at last he has 

 turned them forward so much that he has the greater 

 leverage over the counterbalancing mercuiy at b and 



'^' Pii 



|llllllllll!liiiiillliiliSilli^ltel!ii!iililii 



descends ready to take his stand on the third step. In 

 this way the two manikins vault over one another's heads 

 until they have descended from top to bottom of their 

 tiny flight of stairs. 



LTo be continued?) 



NOTES 



The French deep-sea exploring expedition off the North Coast 

 of Spain in the Bay of Biscay, last month, appears to have been 

 very successful, and to have fully confirmed the great reputation 

 formerly earned by our neighbours in similar undertakings 

 throughout the wide ocean. No less than 103 sounding? were 

 taken. The fauna agrees with that which was observed in the 

 Porcupine cruise of 1S70 along the western coasts of Spain and 

 Portugal ; and there [are corresponding inequalities in depth. 

 We understand that, with the approval of the French Commis- 

 sion, Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys will give an account of this expedition 

 at the Swansea meeting of the British Association. The Paris 

 report in the Times of August 5 is not quite correct. 



The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 meets this year at Boston, on the same day as our own does at 

 Swansea, August 25. From the Local Committee's circular. 



which has been sent us, it is evident that a " good time " is in 

 store for those who attend the meeting, and they are likely to be 

 many. It seems to us that the organisation of the American 

 Association is much better than ours, though it will be seen from 

 last week's Nature that tlie Swansea Committee have taken 

 great pains to give the British Association an agreeable reception. 

 The Boston Local Committee contains many well-known names, 

 and is subdivided into a Committee-at-Large, Reception Com- 

 mittee (which includes the names of numerous ladies, headed by 

 Mrs. Louis Agassiz), Committees on Finance, Railroads, Hotels 

 and Lodgings , Rooms for Meetings, Mails, Express, and Telegraph, 

 and Excursions. On these committees we find such names as 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Asa Gray, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry 

 W. Longfellow, A. Graham Bell, A. Agassiz, and many others 

 eminent Lotli in science and literature. The arrangements for 

 excursions and receptions seem admirable, and the savants will 

 have a terrible round of pleasure to undergo. Among other 

 provisions by the Local Committee is a daily free public luncheon 

 between the morning and afternoon sectional meetings, for the 

 purpose of keeping the members together. The circular contains 

 all information about hotels and lodgings, receptions, excursions, 

 meetings, &c., and ample provision has been made in the various 

 rooms for experiments and illustrations. The rooms will be 

 connected by telephone with each other, with the hotels, and 

 with the general telephone circuit of Boston and Cambridge. 

 Indicators in each of the sectional rooms, as well as in the 

 secretary's room and in the hotel selected for head-quarters, will 

 show at any moment what papers are under discussion in each of 

 the sections. Among the public addresses to be given during 

 the meeting are those of the retiring president, Prof. G. F. 

 Barker, the vice-president of Section A, Prof. Asaph Hall, and 

 the vice-president of Section B, Mr. Alexander Agassiz. 



The Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association was 

 opened at Cambridge on Tuesday, under the presidency of 

 Prof. Humphry. 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers had a very successful 

 meeting last week at Barrow-in-Furness. Every facility was 

 afforded the members for inspecting the many objects of engineer- 

 ing interest in Barrow and its vicinity. The [papers read were 

 all of more or less technical interest. 



On Thursday last the Anthropological Congress was opened 

 at Berlin in the presence of the Crown Prince and Princess of 

 Germany and of many distinguished literary and scientific men. 

 Prof. Virchow delivered an eloquent speech. Dr. Schliemann 

 afterwards gave an account of his discoveries and excavations. 

 On Monday a banquet was given in honour of Dr. Schlieinann 

 and Prof. Nordenskjold, who, on Tuesday, were entertained by 

 the Crown Prince. 



In connection with the vote for the British Museum on Mon- 

 day there was some talk as to the organisation of that institution 

 and of the new Natural History Museum. Air. Walpole spoke 

 hopefully of the early transference of all the collections destined 

 for the South Kensington buildings, while Mr. Story-Maskelyne, 

 tenderly remembering his former colleagues, advocated the erec- 

 tion of houses for the officials. There was a good deal of vague 

 and unsatisfactory talk about the distribution of duplicates to 

 provincial museums. This is evidently a matter that requires 

 clearing up, and it might be weU to take means to decide once 

 for aU what are duplicates and what would be the best method 

 of disposing of them. Mr. M'CuUagh Torrens thought there 

 was great room for reform in the method of appomting the 

 Trustees of the British Museum, who are far from being repre- 

 sentative ; there should, he thinks, be a larger infusion of the 

 scientific element among them. 



A coRREsrONDENT sends us some notes as the result of a 

 visit to the Belgian National Exhibition at Brussels. The total 



