Feb. 26, 1880] 



NATURE 



407 



ment, whose total weight exceeds a ton. These experiments 

 are conducted by M. Lcewy at the meridian telescope which is 

 used for small planet observations from full moon to new moon. 

 During that time the instrument is not employed, obsei rations 

 being made at Greenwich according to the co-operation estab- 

 lished by Leverrier and Sir George Airy twenty years ago. 



It has been remarked by Admiral Mouchez that the number 

 of small planets observed at Greenwich last year did not reach 

 the twentieth part of that observed at Faris. A member of the 

 Institute has derived from this fact the inference that, irre- 

 spective of the differences cf weather produced by the difference 

 of situation, the view must have been clearer as a whole during 

 the waning moon than during the ether rait of its revolution. 

 The suggestion is worth being tested by direct observation, and 

 is one of the most obvious instances \\ here the advantages of 

 connecting astronomical observations with meteorology, so much 

 advocated by Leverrier, may be illustrated. 



The building of the Nice Observatory established by M. 

 Bischofsheim, is progressing favourably. M. Perrctin, one of the 

 astronomers of the Taris Observatory, has been appointed 

 director, and will leave for Nice as soon as the state of the 

 works may require his presence in this magnificent establishment. 



It is proposed to establish a meteorological and magnetical 

 observatory on the Island of Reunion. 



The widespread and daily-increasing applications of electricity 

 have caused the formation in Berlin of an " Electrotechnischer 

 Yerein." Its establishment is in a great measure due to the ener- 

 getic German Postmaster-General Stephan, whose lively interest 

 in the latest advances of science we have already had occasion to 

 notice. The officers include, besides Herr Stephan, such well 

 known names as Prof. Kirchhoff and Dr. Werner Siemens. The 

 membership already numbers over 700, and embraces prominent 

 representatives from all departments of science and art. 



It being now tiventy-one years since the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion was established, the event is to be marked by a social 

 meeting of the members at St. James's Restaurant on Thursday, 

 March 4, at 6.30 r. M. 



The already large number of periodical;, devoted to chemistry 

 in the German language is increased by the appearance in Vienna 

 of the Monatshejte f::r Chtmie urtd verwandtt Theilt andcrer 

 nschafttn. This new journal will contain all the chemical 

 memoirs presented to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, whither 

 with but rare exceptions, the results of chemical research in 

 Austria are forwarded for publication. By its rapid publication 

 it is intended to meet a want felt by Austrian chemists, whose 

 patience is tested by the slow appearance of their investigations 

 in the Sitzungsbcrichtc of the Academy, a lapse of four or five 

 months often intervening between presentation and publication. 

 There is perhaps also a tribute to the national pride in possessing 

 finally, like their confreres in Russia and Italy, their own chemical 

 journal, and ceasing to be dependent on French and German 

 periodicals for bringing the results of their work before the great 

 mass of chemi>ts. The Mcnatshrfte will appear ten times during 

 the year, and form a volume of about Soo pages. In the first 

 number, which «a> issued in January, there are articles by 

 Weidel and Ilerzig, on Derivatives from Bone Tar; by Hbnig, 

 on a New Isomeride of Gluconic Acid ; by Exner, on the Theory 

 of Inconstant Galvan : c Batteries ; by Herth, on the Synthesis of 

 Diguanide, &c. 



AT the annual public stance of the Belgian Academy on 

 December 16, 1879, interesting discourses were delivered by 

 Baron de Selys Longchamps, on the classification of birds since 

 Linnajus, and by M. Gilkinet on the development of the vegetable 

 kingdom in geological times (see Bulletin, No. 12). A report 



was presented on the work of the Academy in the mathematical 

 and physical sciences during the last five years, the jury awarding 

 the quinquennial prize to M. Ilouzeau, for his " Uranometrie 

 generale." The Academy having several years offered a prize for 

 researches on torsion, has, last year for the first time, received a 

 ruemoir on the subject, which receives honourable mention, but 

 is not thought worthy of the prize. The deaths recorded during 

 the year have been those of one member, Chappuis, and three 

 associates, Dove, von Lamont, and Gervais. 



Having made numerous observations of the enigmatical red 

 spot of Jupiter, M. Niesten finds (Belg. Acad. Bullttin, No. 12, 

 1879) the duration of rotation a period of 9 hours 55J minutes. 

 Comparing past observations of the reappearance of this spot 

 since Cassini's time, he observes that the time elapsing between 

 two successive returns of the spot, seems to be comprised between 

 five and six years, that is to say, that in one revolution of Jupiter, 

 w hich is 1 1 '86 years, the spot appears to attain twice its maximum 

 intensity, the one when the planet reaches the heliocentric longi- 

 tude 324°, i.e., when it is about 50° distant from its perihelion 

 (as Maroldi indicates) ; the other when it reaches the longitude 

 157°, i.e., when it is near its aphelion. In the return of this 

 "tack; fixe et fassagb-e en mime temps," as Cassini de.-ignates it, 

 may we not (the author asks) find the indication of a permanent 

 spot on Jupiter, a spot v hich reveals itself to the investigations 

 of astronomers, though concealed at certain epochs by an atmo- 

 sphere more or less thick ? 



The philosophical Faculty of Gbttingen University have just 

 had occasion to cancel a doctor's diploma granted in absentia to 

 a Greek, Demetrius Menagius, who had presented A paper in 

 1871 on Xeno^hon's Hellenica, professedly bis own, while it 

 was really a copy of one published in Athens in 1S58 by A. 

 Kyprianos, the title-page being falsified, and Menagius's name 

 given as the author's. 



From Trof. Piazzi Smyth's Meteorological Report appended to 

 the last Quarterly Return of the Births, Deaths, and Marriages 

 for Scotland, we take the following interesting remarks : — " Like 

 its two preceding months of this last quarter of 1S79, December 

 had an unprecedently high barometric pressure. But, unlike 

 them, it began with a furious blast of low temperature, chiefly 

 in the south of Scotland, so that there no less ihan five stations 

 chronicbd special temperatures actually below zero of Fahrenheit. 

 And when the Botanical Society met in Edinburgh during the 

 beginning of the month, there was rather a fearful account of 

 the much greater degree of cold that the members had been thus 

 far chronicling this December to what they had registered during 

 the terrible December of 1S78. But their fears for the future 

 w ere needless ; the solar phenomenon of sun-spot activity had 

 already pa-sed its lowest point; the low temperatures measured 

 were chiefly confined to the south-eastern divisions ; and a warm 

 period set in so decidedly, and generally, over the whole country 

 towards the end of the month, that the mean temperature of 

 the whole of December, 1879, though lower than the mean of 

 all former years, yet has proved 4 higher than that of December, 

 187S ; and together with this so-far improved feature of tempera- 

 ture, the month shows less humidity, less number of rainy days, 

 less rainfall, less cloud, a little more sunshine, but stronger wind, 

 and now chiefly from the west. Territorially, the lowest mean 

 temperatures were not on the hill-tops, but at moderate eleva- 

 tions and in the south, so that there Thirlestane Castle recorded 

 29°"2, and Stobo Castle 30°'2 ; while in the extreme north 

 Scourie recorded sd much as 42°"8, and Sandwich 40°'2 — a 

 memorable inversion of ordinary latitude effect. Rain was most 

 abundant in the north-west and north, so that there Dunvegan 

 measured 671 inches, Stornoway 5'72 inches, and Scourie 5 - 30 

 inches ; while in the south-eastern, East Linton measured only 

 o"50 inch, and Smeaton 052 inch. A few lightnings and rather 

 more auroras were seen, chiefly in the north." 



