Sept. 1 6, I 



NATURE 



465 



mechanical drawing, essay on one of three given subjects con- 

 nected with mechanics or engineering, French or German, the 

 use of tools, either carpenters' tools, or the lathe (wood or 

 metal), or the file. There is also a senior scholarship of the 

 value of So/, to be awarded at the close of each session from 

 lSSl-S2 inclusive. Candidates for this scholarship must, to the 

 satisfaction of the Faculty of Science, have attended during the 

 whole of the session immediately preceding the award College 

 classes in the following subjects : — Applied mathematics, prac- 

 tical physics, junior engineering, engineering drawing, geology. 

 The scholarship will be awarded on the results of the ordinary 

 class examinations in these subjects. 



Referring to a short announcement in Nature, vol. xxi. 

 p. 306, of prizes offered by the Venetian Institute, we have been 

 desired to point out that the limit of time for tire first (that 

 relating to the mechanical equivalent of heat) is March 31, 1881 

 (not iSSo). In further explanation we may say that the task 

 proposed is " to discuss minutely the determinations of the equi- 

 %'alent hitherto made, to investigate the causes of the consider- 

 able differences that have appeared in the results, to indicate 

 what is the most probable value that may be deduced from these, 

 and to determine the equivalent by new experiments, adopting 

 the method which the competitor shall have proved to be most 

 exact." Many writers of gi-eat authority assume 424 or 425 

 kilogrammetres as the mean value ; but Joule's more recent 

 experiments, based on observation of electric phenomena, give 

 430, and VioUe has obtained a value approximating 435. The 

 importance to physical science of a settlement of the question is 

 obvious. 



The Vienna Academy (Section of Mathematics and Natural 

 Science) has proposed as subject for the Baumgarlner prize of 

 1,000 florins the microscopic investigation of wood of living and 

 fossil plants. By such investigation and the comparison of all 

 kno%vn recent and fossil woods, it is desired to ascertain characters 

 whereby it will be possible to determine the genus and species 

 with certainty from microscopic sections. Papers must be sent 

 in before December 31, 1SS2, and the prize will be awarded at 

 the anniversary meeting in 18S3. - For further conditions see the 

 Anzeiger. 



The Philadelphia Record deserves all the credit that has been 

 accorded it for its public-spirited and successful efforts to break 

 up the sale of bogus medical diplomas in that city. These 

 diplomas were chiefly sold abroad, and it is appalling to learn, 

 on the authority of the Times correspondent, that 11,000 of 

 them have been issued during the past few years. " It was well 

 known," the correspondent writes, "that Dr. John Buchanan, 

 the Dean of 'The American University of Philadelphia,' and 

 several other similar institutions, was engaged in this traffic ; but 

 as they were all properly chartered medical schools, and, though 

 disreputable, existing under the sanction of law, the difficulty was 

 to get evidence of the sale of the diplomas. Diplomatic complaints 

 about the trafSc came from various Governments of Europe, and 

 our people began to be restive under the stigma. " By the clever 

 tact of the city editor of the Record, however, Buchanan has 

 been brought within reach of the law, and the detectives are on 

 his track. He attempted to put them off the scent by getting a 

 man looking like himself to pretend to drown himself; this 

 bogus case of drowning, however, has deceived nobody. 



Mr. a. L. Siler, the American Naturalist informs us, has 

 discovered at Malley's Nipple Ranch, near Pahreah, Kane county, 

 Utah, remains of clifl"-structures, which he describes as follows : — 

 The remains seem to have been the foundations of small huts 

 built on ledges of red sandstone under overhanging cliffs. The 

 walls were about six inches thick, ^made of thin flat sandstone 

 brought up from the valley below, and laid in adobe. The 



structures are divided into rooms about four feet square, leaving 

 all the space between the building and the back of the cliff, 

 usually about ten feet, entirely free. Upon digging into one of 

 the rooms, Mr. Siler found parched corn and rope in a good 

 state of preservation. 



The August number of the American Entomologist contains 

 an interesting article by the editor (Prof. C. V. Riley) on the 

 eftects of Pyrcthrum (either as powder or fumes) on injurious 

 insects, and the author believes this otherwise harmless substance 

 is destined to entirely supersede the use of Paris green and other 

 arsenical compounds. Experiments were made upon various 

 insects, and on some the effect was remarkably rapid, the powder 

 kdling them in a very short time. " Squash bugs " appeared to 

 resist the longest. Amongst other articles and notes is one on a 

 luminous elaterid larva from Maryland, accompanied by figures ; 

 and an important one by Prof. W. S. Barnard on the larva of 

 a Simulium, which forms black masses on the rocks in rapids 

 near Ithaca, N.Y., the pupa being furnished with external 

 breathing apparatus. This magazine still suffers from the incon- 

 venient absence of any indication of the contents of each number, 

 a want the editors will do well to supply. 



The members of the Geological Society of France arrived at 

 Boulogne on Thursday last. At their reception in the College 

 Communal, adjoining the museum, a vin d'honneur was offered 

 them by the municipality. Among those present were Professors 

 Prestwich and Seeley. The first meeting took place in the Salle 

 Daunou, at the museum, where an opening address was delivered 

 by M, de Lapparent, president of the Society. 



On August iS and 24. storms of almost unprecedented violence 

 swept over Kingston, Jamaica, and its neighbourhood. The 

 destruction has been ^^■idespread and terrible, reminding one of 

 the dire effects sometimes experienced from storms at Mauritius. 



Prof. Silvestri, in a recent ascent of Etna, found that, as a 

 result of recent volcanic activity, the summit has been lowered 

 to the extent of 12 metres, so that its present height above sea- 

 level is 3, 300 metres, and that the interior edge of the crater, 

 which was foimerly 1,500 metres in circumference, is now 1,800. 

 The platform which was formerly seen on the east side, at 60 

 metres below the edge of the crater, has completely fallen into 

 the heart of the volcano, and the eruptive axis, which before the 

 eruption of 1 8 79 was situated on the west side of the crater, is 

 now right in the centre. Thus the mterior walls of the crater 

 of Etna now present the virtually characteristic form of a great 

 funnel. 



On September S the adherents of the Positive Philosophy went 

 in procession to the Pere Lachaise to the tomb of Auguste Comte, 

 the founder of this system. Their number was about 20O. 

 Tln-ee speeches were pronounced on the spot, and in the evening 

 a banquet took place in the very rooms that Auguste Comte 

 occupied during his lifetime and which have been preserved in 

 their former state. 



Traces of the last exceptionally cold winter are now visible 

 in Paris, a large number of trees in the squares and streets 

 having lost their foliage at an early period. Many of them are 

 showing leaves belonging to a second formation, and which are 

 probably doomed to a speedy death. We daresay many of our 

 readers will have noticed a similar result in London. 



According to the Rc'vue Scientijique a change has taken place 

 in the Observatory of Algiers, but of a very unusual character. 

 JI. Balard, who has been during so many years director of this 

 establishment, has been reduced to the grade of astronomical 

 attache, and M. Trepied, adjoint member of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes, and one of the staff of the Rhue Scientijique, has 

 been appointed director. 



