i 
Fune 25, 885 | 
NADLURE 
181 
various parts of the world. He wasa liberal patron of explorers ; 
the recent researches of Dr. Schweinfurth, in Socotra, for 
example, were carried out at Dr. Riebeck’s expense. His death 
is a serious loss to science. 
THE death is also announced, at the age of sixty-seven years, 
of Mr. W. S. W. Vaux, F.R.S., the well-known numismatist 
and Oriental scholar, and Secretary to the Royal Asiatic 
Society. 
WE have still another death to record this week—that of M. 
Henri Tresca, an eminent French physicist and mechanical 
engineer. He was born at Dunkirk in 1814. He studied at the 
Polytechnic School, and on leaving it entered the corps of the 
Ponts et Chaussées, but soon afterwards quitted the service in 
order to devote himself to scientific study. In 1850 he was 
appointed principal inspector of the French Section of the 
Exhibition at London, and afterwards became sub-director of 
the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, and he there filled with 
great distinction the Chair of Industrial Mechanics. In 1872 
he was elected a Member of the French Academy. Of his 
numerous works may be mentioned his ‘‘Cours de Mécanique 
Appliquée” and his ‘‘ Ecoulement des Liquides.” The Aca- 
demy of Sciences, on hearing of his death from the President, 
M. Boulay, closed the sitting as a mark of grief. 
WE are informed that Dr. Barius, Surgeon-General to the 
French army in Tonquin, died on the roth in Haiphong after a 
short illness caused by overwork and anxiety in that unhealthy 
climate. Dr. Barius is well known to the scientific world from 
his meteorological writings, especially his able and exhaustive 
“* Recherches sur le Climat du Sénégal.” While in Haiphong 
Dr. Barius took the trouble to make observations every day at 
to a.m. and 4 p.m., which he reduced and forwarded to Hong 
Kong, and his loss is severely felt ; but some time before his 
death he mentioned in a letter that the meteorological observa- 
tory, of which he had urged the necessity, would be started in a 
few months. 
AT the Oxford Commemoration, last week, the honorary 
degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon Prof. Huxley. 
THE organising committee of Section A of the British Asso- 
ciation have arranged for the following discussions at the Aber- 
deen meeting :—(1) On Kinetic Theories of Gases; (2) On 
Standards of White Light. It would be convenient if those 
wishing to take part in the discussion would send in their names 
before the meeting to the Recorder of Section A. 
THE Council of the Society of Arts have awarded the Society’s 
silver medals to the following readers of papers during the 
session 1884-85 :—To Anton Jurgens, for his paper on ‘‘ The 
Preparation of Butterine.” To P. L. Simmonds, for his paper 
on ‘‘ Present and Prospective Sources of the Timber Supplies of 
Great Britain” To A. J. Ellis, B.A., F.R.S., for his paper on 
““The Musical Scales of Various Nations.” To Thomas 
Wardle, for his paper on “ Researches on Silk Fibre.” To H. H. 
Johnston, for his paper on ‘‘ British Interests in East Africa, 
especially in the Kilimanjaro District.” To E. C. Buck, for 
his paper on ‘‘The Agricultural Resources of India.” To 
Mancherjee M. Bhownaggree, for his paper on ‘‘The Present 
Condition and Future Prospects of Female Education in India.” 
To Dr. Frederick Siemens, for his paper on ‘‘ Tempered Glass.” 
To Frederick J. Lloyd, for his paper on ‘‘ The Chemistry of 
Ensilage.” 
IF the few details that have reached us in the form of news- 
paper accounts are to be relied upon, Clifton Hall Colliery, near 
Manchester, in which the great explosion occurred on Thursday 
last, killing 140 men and boys, appears to have been dry and 
dusty and at the same time very free from firedamp. It remains 
to be seen whether those who investigate the causes of this 
accident will give due weight to the now undeniable influence of 
coal-dust, instead of contenting themselves with putting forward 
the usual set of traditional guesses and assumptions, which, it is 
to be feared, have too often supplied the place of those careful 
and exhaustive methods of inquiry and deductive reasoning that 
are alone capable of dealing with the apparent mystery in obscure 
cases of this kind. It is noteworthy also that this explosion has 
occurred in the inspection district in which shot-firing is sup- 
posed to be altogether prohibited except when the workmen are 
out of the mine; and it will be a curious commentary upon the 
late high-handed attempt of the Home Office to force a rule of 
the same kind upon the other mining districts of the country, 
should it turn out that the accident in question was not originated 
by a shot but was due to some other cause, such as the ignition 
of a local accumulation of firedamp. We await the result of 
the inquiry with very great interest. 
Mr. J. R. HENDERSON, M.B. (Edin.), F.L.S., zoologist of 
the Scottish Marine Station, Edinburgh, has been appointed 
Professor of Biology in the Christian College, Madras. This is, 
we understand, the first Professorship of Biology which has been 
founded in India. Mr. Henderson had a very distinguished 
career in the University, being awarded, among other honours 
in natural science, the Dobbie Smith Gold Medal. He is at 
present engaged in describing the Anomura collected during the 
Challenger Expedition. 
Pror. T. C. MENDENHALL, of the University at Columbus, 
has received an appointment in connection with the United 
States Signal Service. This is an important accession to the 
scientific staff of the Meteorological Service of the United States, 
and is another instance of the enlightened policy carried out by 
General Hazen, the Chief Signal Officer. The high-class con 
tributions to meteorology we receive from time to time from 
the office of the Signal Service are the outcome of these 
appointments. 
To the American Meteorological Journal for June Mr. H. 
Allen Hazen sends a short but interesting communication on 
thunderstorms and air-pressure. Thunderstorms may be divided 
into (1) common storms with light winds, more or less rain, and 
generally not very heavy thunder ; (2) those preceded or attended 
by a high and sudden wind ; and (3) those that may be termed 
electric storms, mostly experienced in the west of the States, and 
of which little has been written or is known up to the present 
time. As to this third class, it is alleged that storms occur in 
the west with heavy electric discharges, and more or less wind 
but no rain. These storms the Signal Service proposes to inves- 
tigate most carefully, particularly since, if it be conclusively 
shown that thunderstorms occur unaccompanied by any rain, a 
contribution of no ordinary importance will be made to the 
theory of the thunderstorm. It gives us the greatest pleasure to 
learn that the American observers are urged to take readings of 
their aneroid barometers every five minutes during thunder- 
storms, together with non-instrumental observations of rain and 
other accompaniments of the storm. In this department of 
meteorology, accurately observed facts continue still to be the 
great desideratum. 
Drraits of therecent violent volcanic eruptions in Java, of which 
brief telegraphic intelligence has already been published, have 
now reached Holland. The volcano of Smeru has been active 
for many years, casting out fire and smoke, but on April 17 
and 18 an eruption of extraordinary violence occurred. The 
mountain is regarded as the highest volcano in Java, and takes 
the form of a handsome, regular cone. On the present occasion 
the side of the mountain for one-third of the way down from 
the summit is described as having been burst open, a tremendous 
cleft being formed, from which a torrent of lava and mud was 
ejected. A whole estate called Kalibening was overwhelmed, 
| the manager and a large number of Javanese labourers being 
