408 



NATURE 



[Fed. 26, 1880 



From an interesting paper in a recent number of the Ri-jue 

 Scicntifique, on "Fire and Water in Paris," we learn that fire 

 claims a larger number of victims in London than in any other 

 large city in Europe. The lowest percentage of those who 

 meet their death by lire is in Munich, where the percentage is "4 

 per 100,000 inhabitants; in Glasgow it is I"7, in Berlin 2, in 

 Paris 2 - 4, Naples 4T, Hanover 5*7, Cologne 7*1, and London 

 3-3. 



It is stated that Trince Ouroussoff, Russian Secretary of Stale, 

 is engaged on a scheme for introducing the Gregorian Calendar 

 into Russia. 



Signor Denza, of the Moncalieri Observatory, points out the 

 coincidence of a shock of earthquake in Lombardy and Piedmont 

 on the 9th inst. with the great activity of Etna the same day, and 

 an eruption of a volcano in St. Domingo. 



Details are now to hand regarding the earthquake at 

 Carlsruhe on January 24 last. The phenomenon consisted of a 

 very slight shock followed immediately by a more intense one. 

 It occurred at 7.47 p.m. The direction was from west to east. 

 In many parts of the Palatinate an earthquake was observed on 

 the same date about 6.45 p.m. It lasted for seven or eight 

 seconds and was accompanied by loud subterranean noise, ending 

 with a dull explosion. Its direction was from south-west to 

 north-east. Another shock occurred on January 25 at 3.35 a.m. 

 Further earthquakes are reported from Nevesinje (Bosnia), where 

 a violent shock occurred on January 27 at 4.30 p m., and from 

 San Salvador, where an earthquake did serious damage in the 

 capital on January 10. 



A FEW years ago Dr. Legoff subjected himself to an operation 

 of transfusion of blood, in order to save the life of a wounded 

 soldier lying in Val de Grace Hospital in Paris. The operation 

 was successful, inasmuch as the patient escaped, but the health 

 of the doctor declined. He went to Algiers to recover, but with 

 no avail. We learn from an address by M. Wohl, a Professor 

 to the Lycee, on the occasion of his funeral that he died in the 

 beginning of February. 



The "Ornis" (Society for Ornithology and Bird-culture) of 

 Berlin will hold its biennial exhibition from February 27 to 

 March 2 next. The last exhibition, in the spring of 1S78, was 

 a great success. The Society will now give gold, silver, and 

 bronze metals to the most deserving exhibitors. Dr. Karl Russ, 

 of Steglitz, near Berlin, is the president, and requests all 

 breeders of birds and possessors of rare and costly specimens 

 who would like to participate in the exhibition to communicate 

 with him. 



M. Dreyfus, of Paris, has just published a second edition of 

 M. W. de Fonvielle's recent work, " Comment le font les 

 Miracles en dehors de l'Eglise," with a new preface and a 

 number of additions relating to recent events. 



A CRAYFISH epidemic has broken out from some unexplained 

 cause in almost all the waters of Alsace-Lorraine. Possibly like 

 most epidemics it may be due to some fungus. The German 

 Government has applied to several eminent zoologists for their 

 opinion, and resolved to prohibit the capture of crayfish in this 

 province for the next three years. A number of female crayfish 

 from the piscicultural establishment at Hiiningen are to be 

 imported into the Alsatian waters. 



At a recent meeting of the Berlin Academy of Sciences Prof. 

 Conze spoke on the archaeological investigations which are being 

 made at Pergamon, and in which besides himself Engineer 

 Humann and Herren Bohn, Stiller, Raschdorff, Jun., and 

 Lolling took part. The principal interest centred round a 

 magnificent altar which was found close below the highest point 



of the Pergamon Acropolis. We must refer our readers for 

 details to the Transactions of the Academy. 



The Low-Rhenish Antiquarian Society at Xanten are having 

 extensive excavations made outside the Cleve gate of that town, 

 where very large Roman foundations have been discovered, dating 

 from the Colonia Trajana. 



The Sixth Annual Report of the Postal Microscopical Society, 

 for the distribution of microscopical slides by post, gives a 

 favourable impression of the work carried on by the Society, 

 which has now 13S members, distributed over the country. Mr. 

 Alfred Allen, I, Cambridge Place, Bath, is the secretary. 



Native Japanese papers state that arrangements for con- 

 structing a railway between the Urouchi coal mines and the 

 Ishigari river in the island of Yezo are progressing, and that an 

 agent of the Colonisation Department will shortly proceed to 

 America to purchase necessary material. 



Herr Albin Kohn has examined various tumuli near 

 Czekanow, in Poland, in which well-preserved skeletons have 

 been found, exhibiting in point of greater height, convexity of 

 the frontal and the occipital, straightness of the facial line, and 

 other cranial characteristics, a Caucasian rather than a Slave 

 type. Near the Cetynia, an affluent of the Bug, prehistoric 

 graves of similar form to those of Czekanow have been opened, 

 but owing to the want of care of the workmen it was impossible 

 to determine whether, as in the latter, the bodies were ranged 

 on the back, side by side. The Folish chroniclers speak of a 

 nomadic race called Jacljvinges, whose origin was unknown, and 

 who, after ages of aggressive warfare, were only wholly subdued 

 in the thirteenth century ; and it is not improbable that in the 

 tumuli of the Cetynia Herr Kohn and his coadjutor, Herr 

 Eichler, may have come upon the representatives of this people. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey (Macaats cynonwlgus) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Macauley ; a Water Rail (Rallus 

 aquaticus), European, presented by Mr. T. J. Mann ; three 

 Black Leopards (Falls pardus, var.) from India, three Burrhel 

 Wild Sheep (Ovis burrhel) from the Himalayas, a Pig-tailed 

 Monkey {Mtuacus netnestrinus) from Java, deposited; four 

 Common Blue-birds (Sialia wilsoni) from North America, a 

 Grey Plover [Squatarola helvetica), a Ear-tailed Golwit (Limosa 

 lapponica), European, an Ocelhtcd Monitor (Monitor occllatus) 

 from East Africa, purchased. 



PHYSICAL NOTES 



Two independent sets of observations of the electro-magnetic 

 rotation of the plane of polarisation in gases have recently been 

 made — one by MM. Kundt and Rbntgen in Stra^sburg, the other 

 by M. Henri Becquerel, of Taris. The details of the systematic 

 and elaborate research of the former are given in Wiedemann? s 

 Anna'cn. The general result was arrived at, though without 

 sufficient precision to formulate the mathematical law of depend- 

 ence, that those gases which have the highest indices of refraction 

 possess the greatest rotatory power under magnetic strain. The 

 gases examined — air, oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic oxide, carbonic 

 dioxide, coal-gas, ethylene, and marsh-gas, gave a rotation 

 agreeing in sense with that of the magnetising current. Tlie 

 authors also speculate upon the probability that the plane of 

 polarisation of the atmosphere would be found to be rotated 

 under the influence of terrestrial magnetism, and calculate from 

 their results that a thickness of no less than 253 kilometres of 

 air would be necessary to produce a rotation of 1° in a north- 

 easterly azimuth. M. Becquerel approached the subject from a 

 completely different point of view. Some months ago, when 

 examining the vapour of carbon disulphide, he had found an 

 abn .rmal apparent difference in its optic rotatory power according 

 to the position of the tube in which it was examined. While 

 studying another matter, however, a flood of light was thrown 

 on this observation. In the endeavour to determine as exactly 



