vo" 
August 13, 1885] 
of barium to full redness pure oxygen is givenoff. At this stage 
of the process the retorts are evacuated by a powerful pump, so 
that the operation takes place in a vacuum or nearly so. The 
operations are continuous, and as long as the baryta is kept 
anhydrous and free from carbonic acid the same quantity will 
apparently last an indefinite time. The most interesting and 
perhaps the most useful part of this invention, or application, is 
the production of ammonia by a very direct process. The 
nitrogen obtained as above is passed over a mixture of baryta 
with carbon—charcoal—heated to some unknown temperature, 
about 300° C., certainly not higher. It is necessary, however, 
that the nitrogen be moist, a condition which is attained by 
passing it through water before it comes in contact with the 
mixture of baryta and charcoal. The product is really a car- 
bonate of ammonia and not free ammonia, the water becoming 
decomposed under the conditions named, its hydrogen combining 
with the nitrogen and its oxygen forming carbonic acid. The 
ammonium compound seems to be formed in considerable 
amount, and the process should, when carried out on a large 
scale, be a valuable one. 
A USEFUL summary of anthropological work accomplished 
during the year 1884 has just been issued by Prof. O. T. Mason, 
curator of the ethnological department, National Museum, 
Washington. Besides a copious bibliography of the subject, 
special notices and even extracts are given of the more important 
papers on ethnology, archzology, and other branches of anthro- 
pology that have appeared in the scientific periodicals of Europe 
and America. Thus detailed reference is made to the work of 
the British Association Anthropometrical Committee ; to Prof. 
W. H. Flower’s paper in the Fournal of the Anthropological 
Institute on the size of the teeth as a racial characteristic ; to 
Prof. A. H. Keane’s ethnology of Egyptian Sudan, contributed 
to NATURE; to E. F. im Thurn’s articles in Zzm#her? on the 
natives of British Guiana ; to Dr. Charles Rau’s paper on ‘‘ Pre- 
historic Fishing,” in vol. xxv. of the Smithsonian Contributions 
to Knowledge; and to A. Chayero’s great work on ‘‘ Mexico 
a traves los Siglos,” the first volume of which is completed, 
bringing the subject down to the arrival of the Spaniards. It is 
satisfactory to notice that the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences 
has created a chair of ethnology and archzology, to which Dr. 
Daniel G. Brinton has been appointed. The field of anthro- 
pology is now so extensively cultivated in the Old and New 
World that annual summaries of this sort have become indis- 
pensable. 
THE Swedish Professor Warming has proceeded to Fin- 
marken in order to study the Arctic flora on the Norwegian 
coast. 
On July 20 and 21 two terrible cyclones passed over the 
central part of Sweden, followed by rain and lightning. In 
several places hundreds of old trees were uprooted, and a clear 
road made in forests upwards of fifty yards wide. In one place 
a large wooden snowplough lying by the road was smashed to 
atoms. Fortunately no one was injured. 
At the University examination just concluded in Copenhagen 
there were seven lady candidates, all of whom passed, four gaining 
preceteris, two laudabilis, and one haud illaudabilis. Five of 
these Jadies took the mathematics and natural science degrees, 
and only two the philological. 
DuvRING the last two years several Celtic tumuli in the district 
of Geinberg, in Upper Austria, have been opened and found to 
contain valuable relics of prehistoric times. A few days ago a 
similar tumulus was discovered near Mattighofen, in the same 
neighbourhood, and among its contents was found a diadem of 
pure gold, richly carved in the well-known style of old Celtic 
art. 
NATURE 
355 
Mr. David Dovctas, of Edinburgh, has issued a new edition 
of the late Charles St. John’s ‘‘ Tour in Sutherlandshire,” a 
fitting companion to the author’s well-known ‘* Wild Sports and 
Natural History of the Highlands.” There is an interesting 
sketch of the author’s life by his son, and a long appendix on 
the fauna of Sutherlandshire, by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown and 
Mr. S. E. Buckley. 
Messrs. CASSELL & Co. have issued the second part of vol. 
iv. of their ‘‘ Encyclopzedic Dictionary,” extending from ‘‘ Inter- 
link” to ‘*Melyris.” As there is no editor's name on the title- 
page, we presume that Mr. Robert Hunter, who devised the 
work, and edited the early parts, is not now connected with it. 
A work of such minuteness as this ought to have had “ Laramie ” 
as a well-known geological term. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Macaque Monkey (dZacacus cynomolgus 6 ) 
from India, presented by Mr. S. G. Coles ; a Persian Gazelle 
(Gazella subgutterosa 8) from Persia, presented by Mr. John 
Stanley Cater ; two Madagascar Porphyrios (Porphyrio mada- 
gascariensis) from the Gold Coast, West Africa, presented by 
Mr. E. North Newenham; a Cockateel (Ca/opsztta nove- 
hollandiz) from Australia, presented by Mr. J. Ward; four 
Martinican Doves (Zenaida martinicaua), a Moustache Ground 
Dove (Geotrygon mystacea), five Dominican Kestrels (Z772un- 
culus dominicensis), a Violaceus Night Heron (iVycticorax 
violaceus), two Colins (Ortyx —— 6 6) from St. Kitt’s, 
West Indies, presented by Dr. A. Boon, M.R.C.S. ; a Common 
Viper (Vigera berus), British, presented by Mr. C. Smallman ; 
a Ring-tailed Coati (Maswa rufa) from South America, a 
Golden-crowned Conure (Comurus aureus) from South-East 
Brazil, a Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) 
from Australia, deposited. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
OccULTATIONS OF VESTA.—The minor planet Vesta will be 
twice occulted by the moon during the next autumn, and though 
observation of such a phenomenon is more a matter of curiosity 
than of astronomical utility, we may note the circumstances of 
each case. The first occultation will take place on October 27 ; 
the planet disappears before the moon is above the horizon at 
Greenwich and reappears at 7h. 50m. at 204°, less than ten 
minutes after the moon has risen. The second occultation occurs 
on November 23, the disappearance at gh. 25m. on an angle of 
28°, the reappearance at gh. 46m. at 347° from north point, 
reckoning the angles as in the Wautical Almanac. At this time 
Vesta is near aphelion, and therefore will not be brighter than a 
star of the seventh magnitude. 
ANTHELM’s Nova oF 1670.—Mr. G. Knott has lately had 
under observation the small star situated close to the position of 
the star in Vulpecula discovered by Anthelm in June 1670 ; the 
star is No. 1814 of the Greenwich Catalogue for 1872. From 
comparisons made between July 10 and 20, Mr. Knott found it 
about 10% or ri mag., and equal to a star following it 12 seconds, 
and 4/°5 to the north. It was estimated of the same brightness 
in August 1872, but a magnitude brighter in April 1852. In 
1861, when it was 12m., Mr, Baxendell remarked that ‘‘no 
adjustment of the focus would bring the star up to a sharp point 
on the night of June 1,” and a week earlier Mr. Hind had 
noticed ‘‘a hazy ill-defined appearance about it, which is not 
perceptible in other stars in the same field of view.” 
A rigorous reduction of Picard’s observations of Anthelm’s 
stur, which are printed in Lemonnier’s ‘‘ Histoire Céleste,” 
gives its place for 1670°0— 
R.A. 19h. 34m. 5°335. Decl. + 26° 31’ 41’°5, 
the right ascension being the more uncertain element and liable 
to an error of quite two seconds. Bringing this place up to the 
beginning of 1872"0 we have— 
R.A. 19h. 42m. 21°60s. Decl. + 26° 59’ 45''4, 
which differs — 3°8ts. in right ascension and — 33’"1 in declina- 
| tion from the Greenwich catalogued position. 
