May 7, 1874] 



NA TUR 



15 



practical applications of Science Britain is being distanced by 

 Germany and other countries, and that the only means by which 

 we can hope to compete with foreign rivals is the spread of 

 scientific education. It is hoped that, before the close of the 

 year, a staff of llroroughly competent professors will be giving 

 their lectures in Leeds. 



The annual general meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 commenced yesterday in the rooms of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, under the presidency of Mr. Lowthian Bell, F.R. S. 



The Port Louis Overland Comtncrcial Gazette (Mauritius) 

 of April 4 contains the report of a violent cyclone which em- 

 braced Mauritius in its sweep on March 27 and 28. Indications 

 of the approaching hurricane were observed on the 22nd in a 

 falling barometer and a gradually rising wind, which increased 

 until it reached its height on the two days mentioned. Its 

 greatest force was 11 (Beaufort scale), and the barometer sank 

 as low as 28'566 at 3.30 r. 11. on the 28th. The mischief done 

 to the growing canes was not nearly so great as was antici- 

 pated, though in several places considerable damage has been 

 sustained. Shops in many parts of Port Louis were closed, and 

 on the 27th two of the local newspapers did not appear. The 

 town itself presented a very sad appearance after the storm was 

 over, the roofs and debris of fallen houses and dependencies, and 

 broken trees innumerable, partially obstructing all but the main 

 streets. The cellars of a great many houses were inundated, 

 and a certain amount of valuable goods has been destroyed. 

 There were very few houses in the upper part of the town but 

 were more or less injured ; verandalis, kitchens, stables, gates 

 palings, and such like light constructions having been blown 

 down by the hundreds. The museum at the Royal College was 

 unroofed, but the curiosities it contained liave received no 

 damage. The suburbs of the town were devastated, most of 

 the smaller wooden houses, huts, and camps having disappeared. 

 As was unfortunately to be expected, many lives were lost. 



The Royal Academy of Belgium proposes the following sub- 

 jects for prizes to be awarded in 1875 : — (l) To examine and 

 discuss on the basis of new experiments, the perturbing causes 

 which influence the determination of the electromotive force and 

 the internal resistance of an element of the electric pile : to esti- 

 mate in numbers these two quantities for some of the principal 

 piles. (2) To show the present state of our knowledge on the 

 relations of heat to the development of phanerogamous plants, 

 particularly in respect to the periodic phenomena of vegetation ; 

 and, in this connection, to discuss the value of dynamical influ- 

 ence and of solar heat upon the evolution of plants. (3) To 

 make experiments on the development of the Tunicata, (4) To 

 show by new researches the composition and relations of albume- 

 noid substances. (5) To describe tlie coal system of the basin of 

 Liege. Each prize consists of a gold nredal, of the value of 

 1,000 francs for subjects (4) and (5), and of 600 francs for the 

 first three subjects. The pape-s may be written in Latin, French, 

 or German, and must be sent to the Secretary of the Academy 

 before August I, 1S75. 



On Saturday last tlie extensive works for the manufacture of 

 telegraphic cables, belonging to the Messrs. Siemens, at Charlton, 

 were thrown open to a select party of visitors, among whom 

 were Lord Bury, Lord Rosse, Baron de Reuter, Professors 

 Abel, Maxwell, Odling, Tyndall, and Williamson, Sir Charles 

 Wheatstone, Mr. C. F. Varley, and Messrs. CuUey and Preece, 

 of the Engineering Department of the Postal Telegraph Service. 

 These works comprise nearly every branch of telegraphic manu- 

 facture, but public interest becomes mainly centred on that part 

 of the operations connected with the manufacture of submarine 

 cables. The Faraday — the new sliip to be employed in laying 



the direct United States cable, and the property of Messrs. 

 Siemens — is undoubtedly a novelty in cable ships. It is an iron 

 ship of 5,000 tons register, but equal to carrying a gross burden 

 of nearly 6,500 tons. She is 360 ft. long, 37 ft. deep, and has a 

 breadth of beam of 52 ft. Her capacity for cable storage is 

 immense, consisting of three tanks, two of which are 45 ft. in 

 diameter, the other 37 ft. in diameter, and each 27 ft. deep. 

 Five thousand tons of cable can be thus stowed away, and it is 

 calculated that this will be equal to about 1,500 miles of the 

 cable, which is now being taken on board. 



Mr. Henry Willett, F.G.S., has published another letter 

 in reference to the Sub-Wealden Exploration. He says : — " We 

 have now run through about 400 ft. of Kimmeridge clay. Nearly 

 every inch contains numerous fossil shells in various stages of 

 growth, each of which has been born, has grown, and died. 

 Our little 2-inch column has contained several thousands. There 

 is mo reason to doubt that this bed of clay extends uninter- 

 ruptedly beneath Brighton, Chichester, Southampton, Sussex, 

 Hampshire, and Dorsetshire, to Kimmeridge on the west, and 

 beneath Hastings and the English Channel to the Boulonnais 

 district in France, and that throughout the whole of this vast 

 area, the same conditions of birth, life, and death have existed." 



A TELEGRAM from Aden to Vienna announces the death of 

 Richard Brenner, the celebrated African traveller, which took 

 place at Zanzibar on March 22. 



In a pamphlet on "Agricultural Schools and Experimental 

 Farms" (Blackwood), Mr. David Milne Home points out very 

 forcibly how immensely far behind all the rest of the world is 

 this country, so far as the teaching and practice of scientific 

 agriculture is concerned. For many years, in Germany and 

 Austria, institutions supported by the state have been at work, 

 not only for giving those who intend to follow agriculture as a 

 vocation a thorough education in the scientific principles of that 

 art, but also for scientific education in the principles and 

 materiel of agriculture in all its branches. Other continental 

 countries are following the example of Germany and Austria, 

 and, more recently, numerous institutions of a similar kind, 

 partly aided by Government, have been established on the best 

 models in the United States. The consequence is that Britain 

 is being out-distanced in a department which used to be deemed 

 peculiarly British ; and the only means by which she can regain 

 and keep her place as an agricultural country is by getting 

 Government to take the initiative in founding agricultural 

 institutions similar to those of the countries we have named. 

 " Every civilised country except Britain," Mr. Milne Homeiells 

 us, " has its Minister of Agriculture, to look after and promote 

 its agricultural interests." 



M. Gauthier Villars will publish very shortly the loth 

 volume of the " Annals of the Observatory." This is almost 

 exclusively occupied with a paper by M. Leverrier On the 

 Mutual Actions of Jupiter and Saturn ; a paper by MM. Wolf 

 and Andre, On the black drop, has been reprinted from 

 il/(V«(j/;-j-of the Academy, and annexed to it. Tome XI. contains 

 a paper On a special theory of Jupiter and Saturn, and secular 

 inequalities ; it will also be published very shortly. Tome XII. 

 is nearly all printed; it contains the tables of Jupiter, reduced 

 from M. Leverrier's theory. All the numerical results were 

 obtained at the Bureau de Calculs of the Observatory. The 

 positions of Jupiter were taken from these for 1S7S and 1879, 

 and sent to Mr. Hind for publication in the A^auikal Almanac. 

 It will contain also a paper by M. Rayet, On Magnetical Obser- 

 vations, which have been taken at the Observatory during these 

 last two centuries. 



The Times New South Wales Correspondent writes that an 

 explanation of the fate of the lost Australian explorer Leichhardt 



