426 
NATURE 
[ Sepé. 3, 1885 
“* Recherches chimiques sur plusieurs corps gras, et particulier- 
ment sur leurs combinasions avec les alcalis,” which extended 
for many years and were compiled and rearranged in the volume 
‘© Les corps gras,” issued in 1823 with the dedication ‘‘a Nicolas- 
Louis Vanquelin, mon maitre.” In 1824 he was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry at the famed factory of Gobelins, and the 
energy and untiring industry which was one characteristic of 
his work soon accumulated stores of knowledge based on expe- 
riment. To exact experiment he attached the highest import- 
ance. He wrote in 1823 ‘‘experiment is not chemistry, facts 
alone do not constitute that science, but we cannot have dis- 
coveries without exact experiment.” His ‘* Recherches sur la 
Teinture ” is an elaborate work, and his ‘‘ Moyen de définer et 
nommer les couleurs”’ occupies the whole of vol. xxxili. of the 
Memoirs of the Institut. It has often been remarked that it is 
difficult to believe that the Chevreul of ‘‘ Corps gras” fame and 
the Chevreul who wrote on colours are one and the same man. 
WE regret to have to announce the death, on August 27, of 
Lieut. L. Brault, of the French navy, who had charge of the 
Meteorological Service at the Depdt des Cartes et Plans, Paris. 
M. Brault was the author of several important meteorological 
works, among which may be specially mentioned one on the 
circulation of the atmosphere in the North Atlantic and a 
treatise on astronomy and nautical meteorology. But the great 
work to which he devoted the larger part of his energy was the 
preparation and publication of wind charts for the Atlantic, 
Indian, and Pacific Oceans, a work begun in 1869 and finished 
m 1880. It consisted of sixteen large charts giving for each 
quarter, and for squares of 5°, the probable direction and force of 
wind over those oceans. At the time of his death he was em- 
ployed in the extraction’ and ‘tabulation of observations from 
ships’ logs, with the view of publishing monthly charts of 
various elements as soon as he had collected sufficient data. It 
is sad to see so able a man cut off in the midst of such useful 
work. 
Mr. GEORGE FREDERICK ARMSTRONG, M.A., F.G.S., C.E., 
some time Professor of Engineering in the M’Gill University, 
Montreal, and in the Yorkshire College, Leeds, has been 
appointed to the Regius Professorship of Engineering in the 
University of Edinburgh, vacant by the death of Mr. Fleeming 
Jenkin, LL.D., F.R.S. 
THE Queen has been graciously pleased to confer the distinc- 
tion of Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George on 
Mr. John Fowler, C.E. 
WE regret to learn that Mr. Trelawney Saunders has retired 
from the post of geographical assistant to the India Office, a 
position which he has held with credit to himself and advantage 
to the public service for the period of seventeen years. 
PROF. CALLADON, of Geneva, writes a correspondent to the 
Times, has communicated to the local press a description of a 
remarkable atmospheric phenomenon which was noticed on 
August 6. Until after five o’clock p.m. the sky had been calm 
and serene over all the: valley of the Leman, but at half-past 
five, albeit the atmosphere above the lake and neighbouring 
mountain remained remarkably still, vapours were seen at a 
great height (evidently produced by a strong and warm south- 
west wind in the upper air) advancing rapidly towards the north- 
east, and taking the undulatory forms which characterise clouds 
strongly charged with electricity. At half-past eight the aspect 
of the sky had become decidedly stormy. The thick cloud- 
masses were oscillated wildly, albeit their general movement was 
still from south-west to north-east. After nine o'clock these 
clouds, drawing away, rendered visible the sheet of cirrus which 
stretched above them. The cirrus was phosphorescent, and 
looked as if lighted up by abright moon. On the north-western 
horizon the sky along all the chain of the Jura was obscured by 
thick clouds that from time to time were illuminated by flashes 
of lightning. It was the same over Mont Galene, above which 
the lightning played every few minutes. A long black cloud 
stretching from the Ddle to the Galtne presented on each 
side a broad phosphorescent border, and about a quarter past 
nine there became suddeniy visible in that part of the 
cloud nearest the Jura a luminous centre whence escaped two 
or three phosphorescent rays pointing towards the south-west. 
This phenomenon lasted some twenty minutes, and was suffi- 
ciently striking to be remarked by many observers. From a 
quarter past nine to eleven o’clock, moreover, the south-western 
extremity of Mont Galene was illuminated by a phosphorescent 
light so intense that its rays were visible from every part of the 
horizon. The general appearance of this south-west section of 
the Galéne resembled that which is presented by the city of 
Geneva in thick weather when the mists of evening are lighted 
up by the gas of the streets. Some rare instances are on record 
of forests of resinous trees becoming phosphorescent in stormy 
weather, but the distance from Geneva was too great to enable 
observers to determine whether the light resulted from the phos- 
phorescence of the fir trees which cover the sides of the Galene or 
from that of other parts of the mountain. The Central Meteor- 
ological Bureau publishes, about eight o’clock every morning 
daily, accounts of the general condition of the atmosphere 
throughout Europe, and special reports from twelve stations in 
Switzerland at eight o’clock a.m. and one o'clock p.m. These 
reports are received at Geneva on the following day, and those 
of August 5 and 6 show that on the dates in question there took 
place a complete change in the atmospheric equilibrium of western 
Europe, and that the high pressures which for several weeks 
previously had prevailed over England and the Channel suddenly 
ceased and gave place to warm, vapour-charged winds from the 
south-west. 
IF original scientific work has been poured forth principally 
from the old settled countries of Western Europe, it is not a 
small labour which America seems to be undertaking to 
thoroughly collect and arrange in available order, not indeed 
the knowledge, but even the confused heaps of publications 
from which such knowledge may be painfully extracted. Another 
valuable catalogue compiled by Dr. H. C. Bolton appears as 
one of the valuable publications of the Smithsonian Institution. 
With the unexplained exception of medical science, it contains a 
list of all the scientific and technical periodicals published in 
Europe or America since the rise of this literature. It does not 
include the Proceedings and Transactions of Societies already 
indexed in Mr. S. H, Scudder’s Catalogue of Scientific Serials, 
published in 1879, As this latter did not contain the titles of 
technical journals, the two publications are complementary, and 
together make up a most valuable list to any seeking informa- 
tion; a large proportion of papers, however, neither technical 
nor Societies’ Proceedings, being, of course, found in both. 
The many large libraries open to the public which form such an 
item in the wealth of the United States have much assisted in 
this work, and a list most useful to a student is appended, 
showing in which of more than 120 of them each publication is 
to be found. A table, in chronological order, commencing with 
1728, is also given, showing during which years each of 500 
publications was carried on, and this is provided also with an 
index by which the place of each in the list may be found. 
Another index of subjects referring the reader to the principal 
publications in which each is treated adds greatly to the practical 
value of the whole work. 
Dr. JosiaH Parsons Cooke has just published a volume 
entitled ‘Scientific Culture and other Essays.”  Sevence, in 
