48o 



NATURE 



[Sept. 16, 1880 



the Katawas live in a country sufficiently open and level to 

 aduiit of their becoming good horsemen. The Samus number 

 some five or six hundred families, and live at the upper end of 

 the Pech Dara. They are described as a merry people, given 

 much to dancing, singing, music, and wine-bibbing. At their 

 meals they sit in a circle and eat sedately, and witli dignity, the 

 silver wine goblet placed in a stand conveniently near being 

 passed round the company from time to time. They sb.-ike 

 hands in the English fashion. The women tie up the hair with 

 a silver band. Long massive silver chains presented by the 

 tribe are worn over the shoulders of warriors who have 

 deserved well of their clan. Their religion is simple ; the men 

 invoke the aid of their gods in battle, vowing offerings if they 

 are successful in the fight, and these offerings are stored up in 

 the temples. The Kafirs are being continually encroached upon 

 by the surrounding Afghans. Raids on a large scale are con- 

 stantly made into their mountain valleys, partly to secure the 

 women as slaves, and partly by fanatical Mohammedans on 

 religious grounds." 



A Visit to the Galapagos Islands in I/.M.S. " Triumph,^'' 

 1880, by Capt. Markham. — Capt. Marliham gives an 

 account of a visit he paid to the Galapagos Islands on board 

 H.M. S. Triumph, in the beginning cf the present year. The 

 Admiralty chart, compiled from a rough survey made nearly hal f a 

 century ago, is not very ^accurate, so that it was not safe for 

 a large ironclad like the Tritiinph to extend the cruise in the 

 numerous channels between the islands. Her visit was therefore 

 confined to Post Office Bay in Charles Island, and the paper 

 records the observations that were made during several inland 

 excursions. 



The Galapagos Islands, being 600 miles from any other 

 land, have a peculiar fauna, and Capt. Markham devoted all 

 the time at his command to the collection of birds, skins, insects, 

 and shells. These specimens have been placed in the hands of 

 Mr. Salvin, and it is anticipated that they will form an addition 

 to our knowledge of the natural history of this isolated 

 archipelago. 



In our report of Mr. Weldon"s paper, read before the Chemi- 

 cal Section of the British Association, it is stated : — " Molecular 

 heats of fonnation of elements of the same group divided by the 

 atomic volumes of the electro-negative elements give numbers 

 either identical with, or bearing some simple relation to, each 

 other." This should read: — " Molecular heats of formation of 

 compounds of positive elements of the same group with the same 

 electro-negative element, divided by the atomic volumes of the 

 positive elements, give quotients either identical with, or bearing 

 some simple relation to, each other. Thus : — 

 Mol. heat of formation of Mol. heat of formation of 



FbClo. PbBr.,. Pbl.,, PbO . Cu„Cl;, Cu„Br„ CuJ;, and Cu^O 

 Atomic volume of Pb ' Atomic volume of Cu 



: : I : I. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Rivista Scientifico-Industrialc, No. 13, July IJ. — Water in 

 alcoholic fermentation, by Prof. Pasqualis.— On animals which 

 exhale an odour of musk. — New observations and note on 

 Crookes' apparatus, by Prof. Serpieri. — On automatic geodetic 

 instruments, by Prof. Vecchi. 



American Journal of Science, July. — Contributions to meteoro- 

 logy, by E. Loomis. — Geological relations of the limestone belts 

 of Westchester county, New York, by j. D. Dana. — Observa- 

 tions on Mount Etna, by S. P. Langley. — Antiquity of certain 

 subordinate types of freshwater and land moUusca, by C. A. 

 White. — Description of a new position micrometer, by L. WaUlo. 

 — Boltzman's method for determining the velocity of an electric 

 current, by E. H. Hall.— Mineralogical notices, by C. U. 

 Shepard. — Imirovement in the Sprengel pump, by O. N. Rood. 



SOCIETIES ANV ACADEMIES 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, September 6.— M. Wurtz in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : — Researches on basic 

 salts and on atakamite, by M. Berthelot.— Contributions to the 

 history of ethers, by the same.— On the etiology of anthracoid 

 affections, by M. Pasteur. He cites some facts in support of his 

 theory. On a spot in a meadow where an anthracoid cow had 



been buried in 1878, a small enclosure was formed, and four 

 sheep put in it ; in another enclo-.ure, a short way off (3m. or 

 4m.), four other sheep. In seven days one of the former 

 set died of the disease ; none of the latter set were affected. 

 (Germs of chorion had been found on the ground over the 

 buried cow, but not a few metres off.) M. Pa,teur differs from 

 M. Toussaint's opinion that acute septica;mia is identical with 

 chicken cholera. — M. Bouley gave some account of recent ex- 

 periments of M. Toussaint, apparently showing the eftieacy of 

 preventive inoculation of sheep and rabbits against charbon by 

 his method. He hopes that once preventive inoculation has 

 become practical, it will be possible to make, not races, but 

 generations, refractory to the disease, by inoculating the mothers 

 during the last period of gestation. — Planet (217), discovered by 

 M. Coggia at the Observatory of Marseilles, on August 30, 

 18S0, by M. Stephan. — On the part taken by Claude Jouffroy in 

 the history of the applications of steam, by M. de Lesseps. This 

 refers to a regret expressed by the granddaughter of the inventor 

 that M. de Lesseps had not, at the inauguration of Papin's 

 statue, recalled the services of Jouffroy, who, in 1783, invented 

 the pyroscaph, which steamed on the Saone sixteen months, 

 making two leagues per hour. M. de Lesseps had thought it his 

 role only to recall the inventions anterior to Papin, and those of 

 Papiu himself. — The enemies of the gallicolar phylloxera, by 

 M. Coste.— Observations of solar protuberances, faculae, and 

 spots, during the first half of iSSo, by P. Tacchini. The increase 

 of solar activity is evident. The observations as to distribution 

 agree w-ell with those of previous quarters. The maximum of 

 frequence of groups of facuL-e is nearer the equator than that of 

 protuberances. There are more groups of facul.e in the north 

 than in the south hemisphere (nearly double the number) ; the 

 protuberances are equally distributed in the two hemispheres. 

 The maximum of frequence of spots and faculsc is produced in 

 the same zones in the tv.o hemispheres. — On the law of magneto- 

 electric machines, by M. Joubert. — On the variations of fixed 

 points in mercury thermometers, and on the means of taking 

 account of them in estimation of temperatures, by BI. Pernet. 

 He confirms M. Crafts' views, and gives a formula for calculating 

 the minima of zero, &c. He states that he can restrict to ^ J-j of 

 a degree for several hours the variations of zero in a thermo- 

 meter whose zero has undergone a depression of o°'8 C. after 

 determination of the 100° point. — On borodecitungstic acid and 

 its salts of sodium, by M. Klein. — Inoculation of the rabbit 

 with glanders ; destruction of the virulent activity of the matter 

 of glanders by desiccation ; transmission of glanders by inocula- 

 tion with the saliva, by M. Galtier. This points to the possi- 

 bility of healthy cavalry horses being contaminated by drinking 

 from the same trough with horses in which the disease is present 

 in a latent state. M. Larrey called attention to a disease that was 

 once very common in the army, where soldiers ate out of a 

 common porringer ; it is an inflammatory and ulcerous affection 

 of the mouth. The disease disappeared after the practice was 

 given up in 1S52. 



CONTENTS p^,;^ 



The Toothed Birds OF Kansas .„ 



The Theory of Determinants .... 45/ 



Letters TO THE Editor:- ^^^ 



The Stone in the Nest of the Swallow.— Chatfl ... .no 



A Peat Bed in the Drift of Oldham.— Jas. Nield 'Ifo 



On the Asiatic Alliances of the Fauna of the Congenian Denosits 



of South-Eastern Europe.— T. R. J 460 



Prosopistoma piinctlfrons.— R. McLachlan ! ' ! Ifo 



Mosquitoes.— M. A. Veeder 'g„ 



H.irdening of Steel.— T. W. GilTAV .'.".' 461 



The New Zealand Institute .... 4 



Albert J. Mvee ..'.'.'.'.'.'. \ % 



Physics without Apparatus, V. (IVith lUustrations) 462 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Fnye's Comet ,55 



Schaberle's Comet (1880, April 6) ^fi, 



Swift-s New Comet ...'.'.'.% 



The Binary Star 85 Pegasi ^g^ 



Gkogkaihical Notes • . . ! 467 



The French Deep-Sea Exploration in the Bay of Biscay. Bv 



J. GwvN Jeffreys, LLD.,F.R.S .468 



The Shower of Augist Perseids, 1S80. By W. F. Denning . . 470 



International Meteorology . . .71 



Agricultural Chemistry. By J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S. '. ! 472 

 Ths British Association: — 



Rsp'Tts ,j6 



Section A— Mathematical and Physical 47S 



Section D — Biology 4^^ 



Section E — Geography 470 



Scientific .Serials 48J 



Societies and Academies 480 



