August 26, 1880] 



NA TURE 



399 



been noticed. In particular he mentioned a case in which a 

 monkey, which had sustained a fall from trusting to a rotten 

 branch while swinging on a tree, had been observed afterwards to 

 examine the branches of the tree, and to break off those which 

 it found to be rotten. Some discussion ensued as to whether 

 the action of the monkey in this case was the result of intelli- 

 gence, and some of the members present were of opinion that it 

 might have been the result simply of anger catsed by the fall. 

 Mr. Schwendler, hor\vever, stated that he had for long made the 

 habits of animals a study, and that he was convinced of the fact 

 that monkeys were possessed of much intelligence ; and he 

 vouched for the authenticity of the statements made in the paper 

 read regarding the monkeys which were taught to pull a punkha. 



The Times Geneva correspondent telegraphs as follows : — 

 " An interesting geological discovery has been made in the 

 neighbourhood of Solothurn. On removing a mass of superin- 

 cumbent sand and gravel to prepare for some quarrying opera" 

 tions, the rock beneath was found to be quite smooth and 

 intersected v\ith old water channels. The excavation being 

 continued, a number of enormous holes filled with great stones 

 w ere laid bare. These holes, like those in the famous Gletcher 

 Garten at Lucerne, are due to the action of water, which, flowing 

 through rifts in the glacier that ages past covered the rock, set 

 in movement the stones beneath, whereby the ' Giant's Kattles,' 

 as they are called, were hollowed out ; but while the rock at 

 Lucerne is sandstone, the formation at Solothurn is hard limestone 

 and quartz." 



At Judicarien and I\iva, in the Tyrol, a rather £mart shock of 

 earthquake was felt on the 12th inst. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes in reference to our Notes regarding 

 the successes of the ladies in the recent London University 

 Examination (N.\ture, vol. .xxii. pp. 346 and 374), calling 

 attention to the fact that the position of the successful candidates 

 in the respective divisions of the lists referred to {i.e., the Pass 

 Lists of the 1st B.A. and 1st B.Sc. Examinations) is determined 

 by the alphabetical order of their names, and is therefore acci- 

 dental. This does not refer to the Honours Lists, which have 

 .'ince been published, and in which the candidates a;v arranged 

 in order of merit. 



From a report drawn up by Don Mariano Barcena, Director 

 of the Central Meteorological Observatory of Mexico, the 

 Gardeners^ Chronicle learns that it is proposed to establish a 

 large number of stations throughout Mexico for the uniform 

 record of observations on the temperature, pressure, rainfall, 

 vegetation, &c. Should this project be properly inaugurated 

 and continued, it will be of the greatest service to science. The 

 observers will likewise report on the state of the crops, prices of 

 grain, and other commodities, &c., as affected by the weather. 



Mr. Bryce-Wright writes to the Times that numbers of 

 false turquoises have during the last two weeks come from Vienna 

 and are still arriving ? Their detection is somewhat difficult, the 

 b^cks of every specimen having been pecked out and the holes 

 filled witli a black cement, to imitate the matrix of La Vieille 

 Roche. They are, however, a little lighter than the real 

 turquoise, the specific gravity being 2 '4, while that of the genuine 

 stone is 2 6 to 2'S. The easier method of distinguishing them is 

 to use a penknife to the false matrix, which can easily be 

 removed, revealing the artificial perforations. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Macaque Monkeys {Macacits cytiotnolgus) 

 from India, presented respectively by Mr. 11. G. Wainwright 

 and Mr. Cecil Peele ; two Tcheli Monkeys {Macaciis Ic/wlieiisis) 

 from Shanghai, China, presented by Dr. Bushell ; a Brown 

 Capuchin (Cebus faliiellits) from Guiana, presented by Mr. Percy 



E. Scrutton; a West Indian AgoMi\ (Dasyprocta cristata) from 

 the West Indies, presented by Mr. W. H. Braithwaite ; a 

 Spotted Salamander (Salamantira maculosa), European, an 

 Axolotl (Sircdon mexicanus) from Mexico, presented by Dr. 

 Gibbs, F.Z.S. ; a Common Cormorant {Phalacrocorax carbd), 

 British, deposited ; a Straw-necked Ibis {Carphibis spinicoliis), 

 a Maned Goose (Bernicla jubata) from Australia, an Elate 

 Hornbill {Buccros elatus) from West Africa, two Brown Mynahs 

 {Acridotheres ftiscus) from India, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Satellites of Saturn. — Mr. Marth has published 

 (Aslron. Nadi., No. 2,328) his ephemeris of the five interior 

 satellites of Saturn, with the usual fulness of detail. ¥ot Mimas 

 he now assumes accelerated motion, leaving it to be decided by 

 further observation whether this hypothesis is the correct one to 

 account for the discrepancies which have been recently remarked 

 between his predictions and observation in the case of this difficult 

 object. Mr. Marth's times of greatest elongations of Mimas now 

 accord within o-2h. with those deduced from the circular elements 

 which we have adopted on several occasions for predictions in 

 this column, and which were founded upon a very approximate 

 discussion of measures at the Naval Observatory, Washington, 

 in the years 1874-77. Without some such hypothesis as 

 accelerated motion, however, these elements will not represent 

 the observations even as late as Lassell's, and it has been only 

 with the view of facilitating to some extent the identification of 

 the satellite about this epoch that they have been from tirne to 

 time employed. They give tie following times of elongations, 

 which may be compared with Mr. Marth's : — 



Jiast Elonmtions 



Au2 



Sept. 



West Elongatio ns 



Sept. 



7 ... IS 30G.M.T. 

 S ... 14 7 

 9 ■•. 12 44 



10 ... II 21 



11 ... 9 58 



-Mr. Tebbutt coramuni- 



15 IS G.M.T. 



13 52 



12 29 



u 6 

 3 •■• 9 43 

 The Bin-ary-Star a Centauri. 

 cates to the Ofev-'o/oo' measures of this object made at Wind-or, 

 N.S.W., in the first half of the present year ; duly weighted the 

 mean result is : — 



i8So-3ii ... Position, i85°-53 ; Distance, s"'i6. 

 Dr. Doberck's elements give the angle less by 2°-9, and the 

 distance also less by o"'2i. An able investigation on the parallax 

 of this star, with a new determination o'f the orbit by Mr. W. L. 

 Elkin of Strassburg has just appeared. 



The Great Comet of iSSo. — Dr. B. A. Gould, the 

 director of the National Observatory of the Argentine Republic 

 at Cordoba, has passed through London during the last week. 

 He describes the appearance of the Southern Comet of February, 

 of which he has j ut upon record the longest series of observations 

 as involving very great difficulty in fixing accurate positions with 

 the telescope, while with the naked eye there wa-; an equal diffi- 

 culty in saying where the tail originated, there being no nucleus, 

 or head, to use the old term, worthy of the name. 



If a systematic search for comets had been organised in the 

 southern hemisphere (shall we say had southern astronomers been 

 so far ahead of their northern confreres ?) possibly the comet 

 might have been detected before perihelion, and some most 

 interesting results would have accrued. The reader may perhaps 

 like to see the track which the comet must have foUoweil in its 

 approach to the sun, which the subjoined places will sufficiently 

 indicate : — 



Right ii„,;„„;^„ .Distance Intensity 



I2h. G.M.T. 



Ascensi 



1879, Dec. 28 ... 51-0 



18S0, Jan. 2 ... 91 



7 - 346-3 



12 ... 334'S 



17 ••• 327'4 



22 ... 321-1 



The last column contains the values of -;; — ., and may be of 

 que tionable application in this instance. 



