NATURE 



[Dec. 25, 1879 



vegium, scandium, ytterbium, holmium, "X," thulium, and 

 uralium. Chemists will have to keep as narrow a watch on 

 these minor elements as our astronomers do upon the minor 

 planets, or we shall not know where we are. 



In a paper on the destruction of obnoxious insects, by Prof. 

 Hagen, of Harvard, in which he describes some experiments 

 that had been made by Mr. J. H. Burns and others, he comes to 

 the following conclusions : — I. That the common house-fly is 

 often killed by a fungus, and that in epizootics a large number 

 of insects which live in the same locality are killed by the same 

 fungus. 2. That the fungus of the housefly works as well as 

 yeast for baking and brewing purposes. 3. That the application 

 of yeast on insects produces in them a fungus which becomes 

 fatal to the insects. 4. That, in the experiment made by Mr. J. 

 H. Burns, all potato-beetles sprinkled with diluted yeast died 

 from the eighth to the twelfth day, and that the fungus was 

 found in the vessels of the wings. He admits that further ex- 

 periments are necessary to find out the most convenient method 

 of application. 



Woolwich is taking a step ahead in the use of the electric 

 light, a number of tradespeople in that suburb being now sup- 

 plied by Messrs. Siemens, who have set up for that purpose 

 three of their most powerful machines. Power is supplied from 

 the steam-engines of Messrs. Rose and Mellish's establishment 

 on the river bank, when the day's work is over. The lights are 

 maintained from 6 P. M, till midnight. 



A correspondent sends us the following account of the 

 recent severe weather at Mulhouse ; it is contained in a letter 

 from Mr. Alfred von Glehn : — "I must give you some de- 

 scription of the fearful weather we had last Friday (Decem- 

 ber 5). No one here ever remembers such a day. On 

 Thursday night it began to rain, the thermometer being about 

 S° below freezing, then came lightning and thunder, and then 

 the most terrible wind got up, with driving snow ; it lasted all 

 night and next day. It blew a hurricane, thermometer about 

 20° F. below freezing, and all the time the snow fell so thick 

 that you could not see a yard before you. I really hardly 

 know how I got to the works ; one could hardly breathe, and 

 at certain open places one could hardly stand, and I saw people 

 have to turn back and take refuge in shops. No trains could 

 a-un ; one was stopped between here and Bale, and the people 

 had to come back as best they could on foot. A goods train 

 was snowed up between here and Cernay, and was only got out on 

 Sunday. Two factory chimneys were blown down, and numberless 

 smaller accidents occurred. We bad to allow the workmen who 

 live in the country to start for their homes at three o'clock in the 

 afternoon, as at night it would have been impossible for them to 

 find their way. Everywhere in the streets stood carts aban- 

 doned by their owners, as the horses could not move them. 

 One train was got ready for Strassburg, with four engines, but it 

 stuck just outside the station, and could go no farther. The 

 next day the weather Mas fine and cold. Sunday night the 

 thermometer fell to 40 F. below freezing, and at 12 o'clock in 

 the middle of the day with a bright sun stood at o° F. This 

 morning it went down to 51° F. below freezing, and when I 

 went to the works it was only a few degrees less. The air is 

 fortunately still, and as there has been bright sunshine every- 

 thing is wonderfully beautiful. Skating is unfortunately out 

 of tire question, owing to the masses of snow. Sledges are to 

 be seen on all sides, even the cabs are mostly sledges, and those 

 who have horses are to be envied, as the roads are in a splendid 

 state." 



The Deny Journal of the 10th inst. states that on the pre- 

 vious Saturday, at about 1 1.30 P.M., the inhabitants of Stranorlar, 

 county Donegal, and for many miles around, were startled with 



a strange and unusual sound. It resembled the noise produced 

 by the falling in of a large building, and in some cases the 

 commotion was so powerful that chairs and other household 

 articles were seen to move. The phenomenon is believed to 

 be a slight convulsion of earthquake, and much resembled 

 distant thunder. Mr. Thomas Watson, of Derry, writes that a 

 similar disturbance was noticed at exactly the same hour at 

 Barons Court, the seat of the Duke of Abercorn, in county 

 Tyrone, and was sufficiently intense to cause the candelabrum in 

 one of the large rooms to shake very perceptibly, the noise at 

 the same time being very loud, and of a nature that puzzled those 

 who heard it to explain. It seems to have been in some way 

 connected with an earthquake wave which appears to have taken 

 the direction almost east and west. 



In a recently-received report from Guayaquil, it seems that 

 the bad season of 1S7S had a most serious effect upon the 

 produce of the soil in that country. The cocoa crop (Ineobroma 

 cacao) was the smallest on record, though the high prices 

 obtained for this article in the European markets have in some 

 degree compensated for the loss. The coffee crops gave even a 

 worse result, as during the last months of the year it was 

 found necessary to import coffee from Central America for 

 home consumption, The quality of the coffee produced in 

 Guayaquil during the year was very inferior. The rice planta- 

 tions having been almost entirely under water, owing to t the 

 heavy rains, for a long period during 1877 and 187S, the 

 production of this article of food (of which, in the coast pro- 

 vinces of the Republic alone, 5,000 quintals per month are 

 consumed) was very limited. The cotton plantations were also 

 destroyed by the same cause. The failure of the above-men- 

 tioned crops left a large number of men free to attend to the 

 collection of india-rubber and ivory nuts. The export of the 

 former during 1878 was a little below that of the preceding year, 

 owing doubtless to the scarcity of the trees producing it, and 

 the difficulties of bringing it down to the coast from the inland 

 forests, where it is gathered, each year made more distant from 

 the ports of embarkation owing to the continued wanton destruc- 

 tion of the trees. The quantity of ivory nuts gathered and 

 exported by far surpassed all previous years. 



The Pharmaceutical Journal of December 20 contains a 

 valuable report on the botany of the Kuram and Hariab districts, 

 by Surgeon- Major J. E. T. Aitchison. 



A NUMBER of papers on the hymenoptera and coleoptera of 

 the United States, by Messrs. E. Norton, C. A. Blake, and Dr. 

 Horn, are in course of publication in the Transactions of the 

 American Entomological Society of Philadelphia. 



From the American Naturalist we learn that Thos. G. Gentry 

 is engaged in a work on the fertilisation of plants by insects, 

 based on observations made in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 and that Prof. O. S. Jordan is preparing a work on the Fishes 

 of North America. 



A favourable report was presented at the last meeting of 

 the Eastbourne Natural History Society. 



In a recent volume of the Ann. de VObs. Roy. de Bruxelles 

 (September, 1S79, S4 pp.) M. Fievez gives a comprehensive 

 bibliography of works, treatises, and notices on spectroscopy. 

 An index facilitates the search for any particular point relating 

 to the subject. 



The Russian Technical Society will hold an exhibition of the 

 latest Russian and foreign technical machines, apparatus, instru- 

 ments, and inventions, from December 15 until May 15 next, at 

 St. Petersburg. 



A paper of great value on the Geology of the Lower Amazons, 

 by Mr. Orville A. Derby, read before the American Philosophical 

 Society, has been issued in a separate form. 



