Nov. 6, 1879] 



NA TURE 



19 



The observatory will be placed at the very summit of the moun- 

 tain, on a platform of rock. It will consist of a small round 

 tower, constructed to resist the most violent winds. Every 

 means will be taken to establish an equilibrium of temperature 

 between the inside of the tower and the outer air. The dwelling- 

 house will be built a little lower, on the south slope, and thus 

 sheltered from the mistral which is extremely violent on the 

 summit of the mountain, and indeed has given to the mountain 

 its name of Ventoux. A covered gallery of II metres will con- 

 nect the house with the tower, access to which will thus be easy, 

 even in the midst of snow and storms. At the instance of 

 Admiral Mouchez rooms will be reserved in this house for 

 scientific men, who may come in summer to carry on researches 

 in astronomical physic-, for which the limpidity of a Provencal 

 sky is so favourable. The difficulties of execution would not 

 appear to be very great, and, in comparing the situation of 

 the future observatory with that of the Pic da Midi, General 

 Nansouty has gone so far as to compare the summit of Ventoux 

 to a sort of earthly paradise. The necessary expenses are calcu- 

 lated at 150,000 francs, and to this all the chief towns of the 

 South-East have already contributed handsomely, their municipal 

 councils having the intelligence to perceive the great practical 

 benefit to be derived from such an observatory. 



The project of erecting a meteorological observatory on the 

 top of the Ballon de Gervance, in the department of Haute- 

 Saone, is progressing favourably. A fortress is being built on 

 this elevated site, and will be fiuished next year. The garrison 

 will very probably have the care of meteorological observat 011s. 

 A telegraphic line has been already established between the 

 intended station and Belfort. 



M. Bischofsheim is leaving for Nice with M. Gamier, the 

 architect of the opera, and M. Lcewy, the sub-director of the 

 Paris Observatory, in order to inspect the site on which he intends 

 to erect the new observatory, on which he is to spend a sum of 

 60,000/., as we mentioned in our notes some months ago. Before 

 determining on the details of his plan, M. Bischofsheim and his 

 scientific and artistic advisers arc to visit the most celebrated 

 observatories of Austria, Germany, and England during this 

 winter. 



King Humbert, of Italy has sent a donation of 20/. to a 

 committee organised to obtain subscriptions for erecting a statue 

 to Galvani at Bologna. Galvani was born in that city in 1717, 

 uhere he was a professor in the University ; he died in 1798. 



The "Journal OjficiJ publishes a decree organising, at the 

 Observatory of Paris, the School of Astronomy of which we 

 announced, a fe>v months ago, the imminent creation. The 

 pupils are to be appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction 

 rom pupils of the Normal or Polytechnic Schools, or graduates 

 in the mathematical sciences. They must be more than twenty- 

 five years of age. They are to receive 61. a month during two 

 years, and reside in the observatory. They will be obliged to 

 follow courses of lectures at the Sorbonne and College de France. 

 The Astronomers of the Observatory will give them special in- 

 struction. After having passed their examination, they will be 

 appointed aides-astronomes in any of the Government observa- 

 tories, with a salary of 10.'. monthly. During their stay at the 

 observatory they will practise calculations, meridian, and physi 

 cal astronomical observations. EUves libra will be admitted 

 under a certificate of efficiency. 



Mr. C. L. Wragge, F. U.G.S., of Cheidle, has presented to 

 the town of Stafford an excellent collection of specimens obtained 

 by him in his travels in various parts of the world, and which 

 will, no doubt, prove of great value to all those interested in 

 geology and natural history. 



In the Cassel State Library, as well as in the Archives at 

 Hanover, Dr. Geiland has succeeded in discovering a whole 

 series of important original letters, hitherto not known, from the 

 pen of Leibnitz, the philosopher, and of Papin, one of the 

 inventors of practical applications of the power of steam. 



Russian papers publish the project of the Exhibition of 

 Manufactures and Fine Arts, which will be opened in 1881 at 

 Moscow. We learn that the Moscow Anthropological Society 

 and the University propose to take an active part in it, and to 

 give to the exhibition a scientific value. 



We learn that in the month of January, 18S0, an artistic and 

 scientific exhibition will be opened in Algiers. It will be the 

 first which has been ever held in the colony. 



The Society of Anthropology of Paris has received, at its 

 last meeting, a letter from Felyx-Denys-Rapontayabo, a native 

 King, in the Gaboon, who, having been educated in the 

 Catholic mission, is a tolerably good French scholar. His 

 Negro Majesty is sending to the Anthropological Society the 

 skeleton of a gorilla, and volunteers to send any scientific docu- 

 ments which may be required. 



In his last report from Saigon, Mr. Consul Tremlett alludes 

 to his having been ordered by the Foreign Office to procure and 

 send home a quantity of the bark known as hwang-nao, which 

 during the past four or five years has been exported from 

 Tongking to Trinidad, and there seems to have proved efficacious 

 in cases°of leprosy. The tree from which it is obtained is 

 hardly known except to the missionaries, and is only found in 

 the mountain forests of the north of Anna n. 



A violent shock of earthquake is reported to have occurred 

 in West Cumberland at 5.30 A.M. on Saturday week. A vivid 

 flash of lightning was seen at the same time. The shocks of 

 earthquake in the southern districts of Hungary, some lasting from 

 forty to fifty seconds, continue in a north-easterly direction, and 

 keep the population in a state of alarm. A shock of earthquake 

 in the direction from south-west to north east, was felt at 

 Ekaterinodar, Caucasus, on October 9, at Sh. 55m. P.M. 



The Municipal Council of Paris has decided that a rtificial cold 

 should be applied to the mortuary, in order to keep corpses in a 

 state fit for public inspection and possible recognition for a longer 

 period. In compliance with that decision a Commission, pre- 

 sided over by M. Vauthier, an engineer of the Ponts-et-Chaussees, 

 who re.-ided long in England, has been appointed to report v.pon 

 the several ice-manufacturing machines. The work of the 

 Commissioner is by no means an easy one. The pneumatic 

 process is not, so far as we are informed, to be brought into 

 the competition. The ammoniac, the chloride of methyl, and 

 the sulphurous acid processes are then to be brought under con- 

 sideration. The two last methods are now exhibiting at the 

 Champs Elyse'es Palace, and the ammoniac process is used 

 in the largest Parisian ice-house, the " Glaciere du Bois de 

 Boulogne." 



A RETURN by the Director of Administrative Statistics at 

 Vienna (based on the latest census of the great European states) 

 shows that out of 102,831 persons who lived over ninety years, 

 42,528 were men and 60,303 women. The longevity of women 

 is yet more apparent when we consider the numbers of human 

 beings who attain and live beyond loo years. In Austria, there 

 were 229 women centenarians to 183 male ditto ; in Italy, 241 

 female to 141 male ; in Hungary, 526 female to 524 male, &c. 



In a recent Consular Report on the trade and commerce of 

 Beuguzi the sponge fishery is described as being entirely in the 

 hands of Greeks belonging to Kalimnos, Hydra, and other 

 islands, who annually frequent the coast of the Gulf of Sidra 

 during the months of August and September. This branch of 



