March 4, 1 880] 



NATURE 



423 



is one not unlikely to produce the diimond form of 

 carbon. 



Some questions asked by Mr. De la Rue and by Dr. 

 Debus regarding the principle of Mr. Hannay's process 

 were responded to by Prof. Stokes, who pointed out the 

 relation of the process sketched at present only in outline 

 by Mr. Hannay, and the paper which had been commu- 

 nicated just previously to it by that gentleman. 



A large tube some four inches in diameter, made of 

 wrought iron, and bored with a small cylindrical hollow 

 along its axis, was shown as one of the tubes in which 

 Mr. Hannay's experiments were performed. 



NOTES 

 The following grants have been made by the Council of the 

 Chemical Society from their Reearch Fund : — loo/, to Dr. C. 

 R. A. Wright, for determinations of chemical affinities in terms 

 of electrical magnitudes ; loo/, to Mr. F. D. Broun, for 

 experiments on vapour tensions. 



Mr. J. R. Hind has been elected president of the Astro- 

 nomical Society. 



The French Government has appointed M. Ilervc-Mangon, 

 the new director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, as one 

 of its representatives in the International Metric Commission. 

 The death of General Morin has created a vacancy on the Com- 

 mittee of the Breteuil International Observatory. This observa- 

 tory has been constructed in the Pare de Saint Cloud on the site 

 of an old imperial mansion, at the expense of the associated 

 nations. The contribution levied is in proportion to the popula- 

 tion multiplied by one, if the nation does not make any use of 

 the metric system, by two if the metric system is permissive as in 

 the United States, and by three if it is the only legal measure as 

 in Belgium, Italy, or France. The pre.-ident of the Committee 

 is General Ibanez (Spain), the secretary, Dr. Hirsch (Switzer- 

 land), and the director of the Breteuil Observatory Dr. Broch 

 (Norway). England declined to join the A; so-;iati<n. Bavaria 

 Saxony, and Wiirtemberg has each a vote and a representative 

 as well as Prussia. 



The boring of the St. Gothard Tunnel was completed on 

 Sunday morning at 9 o'clock. The length of the tunnel is g\ 

 miles, and the boring was begun in 1S72, with machinery worke.l 

 by compressed air, devised by the engineer, Prof. Colladon, of 

 Geneva ; the piercing of the tunnel has taken seven years and 

 five months. The tunnel is expected to be ready for traffic by 

 the end of September, and the entire system of which it is the 

 centre in the summer of 1SS2. 



The savage process of producing fire by the friction of wood, 

 so often described in books of travel, but seldom seen in this 

 country, was performed by Farini's Zulus at the Westminster 

 Aquarium on Monday, in the presence of Dr. Tjlor, Gen. Lane 

 Fox, Mr. Francis Gallon, Col. Godwin- Austen, and other 

 members of the Anthropological Institute. Soaie straw being 

 laid on the ground as a Bed, two sticks were placed on it a few 

 inches apart to form a support for the third slid;, which was 

 laid across them, having a deep notch cut in it to receive the 

 blunt point of the drilling-stick ; this was twirled like a choco- 

 late-muller between the palms of the hands, and when the 

 twirler's hands reached the bottom they were cither dextero.isly 

 shifted to the top again, or another of the Africans squatting 

 round took on and relieved the first. A spark was got in the 

 charred dust in about five minutes, and was received with shouts 

 and leaps of delight by the fire-makers, one of whom, carefully 

 shielding it in a handful of the straw, soon fanned it into a flame. 

 We understand that the operation will be made a regular part 

 of the afternoon performance of tlie^e interesting barbarians. 

 They are physically fine specimens of the Kafir type, varying in 



complexion from negroid blackness in some of the men to dark 

 cafi au hit colour in the women. Their show-scenes, such as 

 the marriage procession, war-dance, Sec, are genuine exhibitions 

 of native life. The Zulus are in exuberant health and spirits, 

 and as yet but little spoilt by contact with civilisation. 



There died at the Rectiry, Newcastle, Lyons Hazlehatch, 

 county of Dublin, on January 20, the Rev. Eugene O'Meara, 

 M.A., for some nineteen years curate of Saint Mark's Parish, in 

 the City of Dublin, and for nineteen other years Rector of 

 Newcastle Lyons. Amidst the hard struggles of a laborious 

 life Mr. O'Meara found time to do some scientific work, on 

 account of which he deserves a britf notice in our columns. 

 Born about the year 1S15, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, 

 in 1S34, taking his B.A. degree in 1840, aid that of M.A. in 

 185S. He soon obtained the post of Curate in St. Mark's, one 

 of the poorest parishes in Dublin. Finding the necessity of 

 having some definite object of research to serve him as a recreation 

 after the toils of his daily labours, O'Meara began the study of 

 the diatoms, attracted to them at first by the ea e with which 

 their siliceous frustules could be preserved and observed. He 

 soon showed that he had a good eye for minute differences in 

 outline and markings, and many a refre.-hing hour was spent by 

 him in the investigation of the seemingly endless forms, for we 

 will not call them species, of these interesting alga;. His first 

 published communication was made to the Briti-h As-ociation at 

 its meeting in Dublin in August, 1S57, on "Diatoms occurring 

 in the Chalk of the County Antrim ; " this was speedily followe 

 by "Notes on Diatoms and Sponge Spicules in the Cambrian 

 Rocks of Bray Head, near Dublin ; " and a very long list might 

 indeel be given of his numerous contributions to a catalogue of 

 Irish diatoms, and of his descriptions of new forms. He 

 was one of the original founders of the Dublin Microscopical 

 Club, and continued to the very last one of its most diligent 

 working members. It ought to be remembered that all this work 

 was done at stray leisure moments snatched from more serious 

 business ; and however open to criticism his largest work, the 

 " Report on Iri>h DiatomaceaV is, none were more conscious of 

 its defects than its author. Pleasant and cheerful in his manners, 

 he was often a great source of encouragement to his many 

 friends. The small circle in Dublin, bound together by many ties 

 for these now more than twenty-five years, will very sadly feel 

 his loss, and there are doubtless others, too, who, when they 

 read this notice, will sympathise with them, and feel that they 

 may add to the names of Harvey, Jones, Kinahan, and Moore, 

 that of O'Meara. 



The Municipal Council of Paris have decided with respect to 

 the electric lighting of the Avenue de l'Opera, to continue the 

 agreement with the Jablockhoff Company up to May I, 1SS1. 

 We understand the gas experiments in the Rue de Quatre Sep- 

 tembre are not to be continued. 



Through the Clarendon Press, Col. A. R. Clarke, C.B.,is 

 about to publish a treati>e on Geodesy, in which the whole 

 subject is treated in the light of the latest researches. 



A telegram from Prof. Milne, of Japan, to Prof. John 

 Terrv, dated February 25, at 2 p.m., states that there had just 

 occurred in Yedo a severe earthquake. Prof. Perry states that 

 about two months ago occurred the most severe earthquake felt 

 in Yedo for twenty years, so that we must regard the present as 

 a period of great seismic activity. Mr. F. V. Dickins, writing 

 to the Timts in connection with this announcement, states that 

 up to the end of 1S7S, when he left Japan, after some years 

 re-idence in that country, the natives constantly predicted severe 

 and destructive earthquakes in this pre-ent year 18S0. "The 

 Tapaae e are singularly accurate observers of natural phenomena 

 and of their cyclical periods, and are also, according tj the 



