90 



NATURE 



[Nov. 27, 1879 



Birt, " for the collection of buoyant articles sent in by them ; " 

 the Society's Silver Medal, to Mr. Herbert Singer, for his 

 "Essay on the Art of the Silversmith ; " to Mr. F. Toplis and to 

 Mr. Joseph Lucas, for their papers containing "Suggestions as 

 to the best Means of dividing England and Wales into Districts 

 for the Supply of Pure Water ; " to Mr. Alfred Haviland, 

 M.R.C.S., for his paper on "The Distribution of Disease 

 popularly considered ; " to Mr. John Hollway, for his paper on 

 "A New Application of a Process of Rapid Oxidation, by 

 which Sulphides are utilised as Fuel ; " to Mr. Conrad W. 

 Cooke, for his paper on " Edison's Loud-Speaking Telephone ; '' 

 to Mr. Thomas Wardle, for his paper on "The Wild Silks of 

 India, principally Tusser ; " to Dr. William Wallace, F.R.S.E., 

 for his paper on " Gas Illumination." 



The second part of vol. xxiv. of the "Memoires de la Soc. de 

 Physique et l'Histoire Naturelle de la Geneve " has just appeared. 

 It contains : — Report of the President to December 31, 1878, by 

 Prof. E. Wartmann ; Researches^ on the Fecundation and the 

 Commencement of Henogeny among Various Animals, by M. 

 Hermann Fol ; On the Genus Hemimerus, Wolk., apparently 

 furnishing a new order in the class of Hexapods, by M. H. de 

 Saussure; Description of a New Species of Trygonid belonging 

 Uthe genus Pteroplatea, by M. Godefroi Lunel ; Comparative 

 Anatomy of the Leaves in some families of Dicotyledons, by M. 

 -Casimir de Candolle. 



In reference to an article in the Globe on Sapphires in Siam, 

 Mr. Bryce-Weight writes to that paper that through one of the 

 Siamese princes in England he has learned that there are several 

 sapphire mines in Siam, on the sea coast, with thousands of 

 people at work, valuable gems having been found and sold at a 

 good profit. 



In the beginning of October there was discovered, at about a 

 kilometre from Guisseny, under a mass of rocks, a cavern 

 fifteen metres long by four broad. This cave has two open- 

 ings, one towards and about four metres above the sea, the other 

 towards the land. The cavern was found, throughout its length 

 covered with a bed of ashes and charcoal about two centimetres 

 thick. Underneath this was found a sort of dry stone masonry, 

 then human bones, remains of cineraryurns, evidently of "Celtic" 

 origin, and a considerable quantity of bones of mammals. 

 Among the latter are some which do not appear to belong to 

 contemporary fauna. Finally, a stone hammer and a sharp, 

 polished axe of porphyry appear to show that this cavern is a 

 sepulchral grotto of prehistoric times. 



A SECOND enlarged edition is announced by Mayer, of Cologne 

 and Leipzig, of Sonnenschmidt's "Kosmologie," the history and 

 development of the universe on the basis of the most recent 

 scientific researches. 



The Journal of Applied Science draws attention to the sub. 

 stitution of paper for wood in Germany in the manufacture of 

 lead-pencils. It is steeped in an adhesive liquid and rolled 

 round the core of lead to the required thickness. After drying, 

 it is coloured to resemble an ordinary cedar pencil. The pencils 

 sell in London to retailers at about 3-f. a gross. 



At the first meeting of the Statistical Society, on the iSth 

 inst., the President, Mr. Brassey, presented the Howard Medal 

 and 20/. to Miss Beatrice A. Jourdan, as the writer of the best 

 essay " On the Improvements that have taken place in the 

 Education of Children and Young Persons during the Eighteenth 

 and Nineteenth Centuries." The President announced as the 

 subject of the essay of next year, "The Oriental Plague, in its 

 Social, Economical, Political, and International Relations." 



The long pending telephone litigation in the United States 

 has at last been settled by a compromise which leaves Prof. 



Bell master of the field. The National Bell Telephone Company 

 have bought up the conflicting rights, and acquired all the tele- 

 phonic inventions of Elisha Gray, of Mr. Edison, and of Mr. G. 

 M. Phelps. The Western Union Telegraph Company, however, 

 is to be licensed to convey telephonic messages, while the right 

 to establish telephone exchange systems is to remain exclusively 

 with the Bell Company. The shares of the National Bell Tele- 

 phone Company are now quoted at 700 per cent. 



The multiplication of the correct time by electricity, as 

 inaugurated by Leverrier, is now organised at Paris, on an 

 immense scale, by the Municipal Council. A length of 15,000 

 metres of tubes is placed alongside the Boulevards and the 

 principal streets, where a large number of dials will mark the 

 time during day and night. Private clocks will be kept to time 

 on payment of a small fee. 



A competitive experiment took place on September 19 in 

 the green-room of the Grand Opera of Paris, on the respec- 

 tive illuminating power of Jablochkoff candles and Werder- 

 mann lights. The Werdermann light was found most steady, 

 and the Jablochkoff most powerful. The experiments « ill be 

 continued next week before the public, and a final resolution 

 will be taken afterwards. The President of the Republic and 

 the Minister of Fine Arts are represented. 



On November 1 1 a stream of falling stars was observed, at 

 nine o'clock, at Chatelherault, when the sky was exceptionally 

 clear. 



A course of six evening lectures on Photography will be 

 given at the Sorbonne every Thursday evening by M. Davanne, 

 President of the .Photographic Society of Paris, with experi- 

 ments. These lectures are organised by the Scientific Associa- 

 tion of France, presided over by M. Milne Edwards. The 

 ordinary evening lectures will begin only in January. 



The second French Atlantic cable has been successfully laid 

 down from Brest to the American shores, through the Scilly 

 Islands and Newfoundland. Congratulatory messages have 

 been exchanged between the Presidents of both Republics. 



Photographers, professional and amateur, will, we believe, 

 derive much assistance from the " Photographic Printer's Assist- 

 ant," by Mr. W. Heighway, just published by Richardson and 

 Best. The directions given are such as have been found suc- 

 cessful in actual practice. 



M. Charcot, the chief physician of Salpetriere, opened, three 

 years ago, a course of lectures on nervous affections, annexed to 

 his clinic. The number of persons asking for admission has 

 been so considerable that the administration of Public Assistance 

 has built an amphitheatre with 500 seats in the hospital. The 

 lectures, which are delivered every Sunday, were begun on 

 November 16, before a full house. The amphitheatre was fitted 

 up with an Alliance Magneto-electric machine, worked by the 

 steam-engine of the washing-house. In each lecture a number 

 of patients are introduced on the platform illustrating the theories 

 of the lecturer, and many photographs are projected on the 

 screen by electricity. In the lecture of November 23 the lecturer 

 projected two engravings reproduced from Montgeron, an author 

 of the beginning of the eighteenth century, who advocated the 

 genuineness of miracles executed on the grave-stone of Diacre 

 Paris. One of these represented a young lady who had been 

 declared by the doctors of the age to be incurable of club-foot, 

 and the other engraving the same person after having been 

 cured in a trance. These two figures were engraved and pub- 

 lished by Montgeron as exhibiting a case of supernatural agency. 

 M. Charcot proved they were analogous to several of the cases 

 which had been presented to his audience and could be cured by 

 the same process. 



