Feb. 17, 188 1 J 



NA TURE 



371 



An important step has been attained in telephony by Dr. 

 CorneHus Herz, by which the principle of magnetism has been 

 entirely discarded and the magnetic receiver abolished, A long 

 series of experiments have been successfully conducted under the 

 patronage of the trench Government on the telegraphic lines 

 of the State; concluding trials were witnessed, among others, 

 by M. Cochery, Minister of Postal Telegraphy, M. Jules Ferry, 

 Prime Minister, M. Leon Say, President of the Senate, M. 

 Becquerel, and other Members of the Academy of Sciences, and 

 other Members, Senators, Deputies, and a great number of 

 engineers. One of the most extraordinary experiments was the 

 transmission of speech on a single wire from Tours to Brest, on 

 a wire passing through Paris, the length of which exceeded eight 

 hundred miles. One single Leclanche's element was the sole 

 battery in use. 



Some dredging work which is going on at Ziirich in the bed of 

 the Limmat has brought to light the shore pillars of a Roman 

 bridge, as well as the skeleton of a prehistoric stag. 



Interesting new discoveries have been made at Pompeii, In 

 block 7 of the 9th district a house has been excavated which 

 was in course of construction when the terrible catastrophe 

 occurred, and which differs materially from all other Pompeiian 

 houses in its plan. In another house a large square piece of 

 black glass was found fixed into the wall, which w hen slightly 

 moistened forms the most perfect mirror. In a third house 

 various wall-paintings were discovered, which however are rather 

 of artistic than scientific interest. 



The newly-elected Municipal Council of Paris has been 

 summoned by the Prefect of the Seine for a session which will 

 begin on the nth inst. It is stated that one of the proposals 

 made will be to establish in Paris a system of police telephonic 

 stations, as practised in Chicago. 



M, Jules Ferry has created a library for patients in every 

 hospital in Paris, The system will be extended to the whole of 

 France. 



At the meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin 

 on January 27 last, the year's report (for 1880) for the Humboldt 

 Institution for Natural Research and Travels was read. Prof, 

 du Bois Reymond, in conjunction with Prof, G. Fritsch, is about 

 to publish the observations and experiments made by the late 

 Dr, Karl Sachs on Gynniotus elcctyictis in South America during 

 1876 and 1877, by order of the Institution, The present tra- 

 veller of the Institution, Dr, Otto Finsch, after staying fur nearly 

 a year upon Talint Island (one of the Marshall group) proceeded 

 to Matupi (on the north coast of New Britain) at the end of last 

 year. His last letter is dated October 27, 1880, and he 

 announces that he has made rich zoological collections. He 

 intended to visit New Ireland and New Guinea if possible, and 

 then to return to Europe by way of Dutch East India. Four of 

 Dr. Finsch's collections have arrived at Berlin ; a fifth is 

 announced by his first letter from Matupi. The funds of the 

 Institution have been increased by small legacies. The sum 

 which will be at the disposal of the Institution for 1881 is 

 12,750 marks (635/.) 



The Sydney correspondent of the Colonies writes:— "We 

 have long had in Sydney splendid botanical gardens, containing 

 the choicest plants in the world, but we have only recently 

 started a 'Zoological G.ardens,' though Melbourne has had one 

 many years, which has been brought to a high degree of perfec- 

 tion. Last week a deputation waited on our Colonial Secretary, 

 asking for funds to stock the Gardens. Sir Henry Parkes 

 replied that if the members of the Zoological Society would 

 undertake next year to put as many animals in the grounds of 

 the Sydney Zoological Gardens as they have in Melbourne, he 

 would guarantee them 10,000/. from the Government, The 

 offer was not accepted," 



The Cluysanthemum is the title of a monthly magazine "for 

 Japan and the Far East," the first number of which has been 

 sent us. The contents are mostly of a literary character, the 

 main object of the magazine being " to aid in bringing the pales 

 of Eastern and Western thought into such contact as may result 

 in the diffusion of a general warmth and light around us." The 

 publishers are Kelly and Co. of Yokohama, the English agents 

 being Triibuer and Co. 



A skeleton of a mammoth has been discovered at Bendery, 

 Government of Bessarabia, in the upper clay drift. 



The St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists has already 276 

 Fellows ; the Mineralogical Society has 398 members. 



The Commission of Fisheries of the United States have sent 

 a quarter of a million ova of the American whitefish to Bremen, 

 en route for the Lake of Constance, where the attempt to 

 acclimatise this fish is to be made. 



The centenary of the birth of the philosopher Karl Christian 

 Friedrich Krause will be celebrated on May 6 next at his birth- 

 place, Eisenberg (Saxe-Altenburg). At the same time a simple 

 monument with a bronze bust of Krause will be unveiled. The 

 design is by Herr Enger of Altenburg, the bust by Robert 

 Henze of Dresden. A Krause Scholarship has also been 

 established at the Gymnasium, 



We have on our table the following books : — " Practical 

 Plane Geometry," John W. Pallister (Simpkin) ; " Introduc- 

 tion to Study of Indian Languages," J, W, Powell; "Journal 

 of Iron and Steel Institute, 1880" (Spon) ; " Practical Botany," 



D. Houston (W. Stewart) ; " Popular Scientific Lectures," 2nd 

 series, Ilelmholtz (Longmans) ; "The Evolutionist at Large," 

 Grant Allen (Chatto and Windus) ; "Journal of Royal So- 

 ciety of New South Wales;" "Extinct British Animals," J. 



E. Harting (Triibner) ; "Calendar of University of Wales, 

 1880-81 ;" "The Silk Goods of America," 2nd edition, W. C. 

 Wyckoff; "London Catalogue of British Mosses" (Bogue) ; 

 "The Statistical Atlas," part I, G. P, Bevan (W. and A, K. 

 Johnston) ; " Kamelaroi and Kurnai," Fison and Howitt (Mac- 

 millan and Co.); " Meeresfauna," K. Mobius (Otto Enstin) ; 

 " Annuaire pour I'an 1880 " (Villars, Paris) ; " A Polar Recon- 

 naissance," A. H. MarUham (Kegan Paul); "Natural History 

 of British Fishes," Frank Buckland (S.P.C.K.); "Ventilation 

 and Heat," Frederick Edwards (Longmans) ; " Practical Phy- 

 sics," A. H. Worthington (Rivington) ; " Muscles and Nerves," 

 Dr. T. Rosenthal (Kegan Paul) ; " Natural Philosophy Examin- 

 ation Papers," Rev. G, MoUoy (Browne and Nolan); "On 

 some Properties of the Earth," O. Reichenbach ; "Evolution, 

 Expression, and Sensation," John Cleland (Maclehose, Glas- 

 gow) ; "The Wild Coast of Nipon," Capt. H. C. St. John 

 (Douglas). 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The So-called Nova of 1600. — Referring to a note which 

 recently appeared in this column on " Janson's Star of 1600," 

 Prof, van de Saude Bakhuysen, Director of the Observatory of 

 Leyden, writes us that "Janson or Gulielmus Jansonius is 

 WiUem Jausz Biaeu, who is well known as the maker of globes, 

 which are now very rare, and as editor of a treatise on the use of 

 globes, of different treatises on navigation, and of a great 

 number of charts ai.d different atlases. From 1598 till his death 

 in 163S he lived in Amsterdam. Janson signifies that he was 

 the son of Jan (John), but his family name was Blaeu." This ex- 

 planation will be acceptable to those w ho may have been perhaps 

 somewhat in doubt as to the correct form of identifying the 

 discoverer of the variable star of 1600 ; Kepler styled him 

 Jansonius, without reference to what Prof. Bakhuysen states to 

 have been his surname : and he is frequently called Jansen. 

 Lalande refers to the globes constructed by Blaeu as the best of 

 the period, and the fact of his remarking the star in question, of 

 which there is no previous mention, proves that he was a careful 



