424 



NATURE 



[March 4, 1SS0 



experience of residents among them, unrivalled weather prophets- 

 Mr. Perry's news confirms in a remarkable manner the precision 

 of their calculation, based no doubt upon a close observation of 

 seismic periods." 



The last number of the Transactions of the Institution of 

 Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland contains an elaborate 

 paper, amply illustrated by plates, on the proposed Forth Bridge, 

 with some remarks on the structure and cause of the fall of the 

 Tay Bridge, by Mr. St. John V. Day, C.E. 



An unusually well organised and successful conversazione 

 was held by the Birmingham Natural History Society on 

 February 25. 



The Royal Order of the Crown has been bestowed upon 

 Prof. Pettenkofer, of the University of Munich, so widely and 

 deservedly known by his researches in chemical hygiene. 



On the completion of Prof. W. K. Parker's course of lectures 

 at the Royal College of Surgeons, Prof. W. IT. Flower's have 

 commenced, in continuation of his previous series of lectures on 

 the Comparative Anatomy of Man. We expect to give a full 

 account of these lectures in future numbers of Nature. 



At the end of a discussion in the last session of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, with regard to the dissociation of chloral 

 hydrate in the gaseous state, Prof. Sainte-Claire Deville gave 

 utterance to the following frank expressions of belief in modern 

 theories : — " I admit neither Avogadro's law, nor atoms, nor 

 molecules, nor forces, nor particular states of matter, and I utterly 

 refuse to believe in what I can neither see nor imagine. I confess 

 that if complex combinations were invariably decomposed before 

 undergoing volatilisation, my opinion would in no wise be 

 changed. While waiting for absolute proofs I find that the 

 chlorides of ammonium, and of the volatile organic bases, as 

 well as a considerable number of bodies, occupy eight volumes 

 in the gaseous state ; and I admit that which I see, as long as I 

 do not believe that my eyes are betraying me, or that I am 

 labouring under a hallucination. It is this which remains to be 

 shown." 



As the laws of the freezing of great surfaces of water have 

 hitherto been but insufficiently known, the Municipality of 

 Neuchatel has entrusted Professors Rougeunont, Weber, and 

 Raoul Pictet with the measurement during the thaw of the 

 frozen lake, of the thickness of ice in its various parts. The ice, 

 in opposition to vi hat was observed on the lakes of Morat and 

 Bienne, had a very varying thickness. Close to the shores its 

 thickness was about 25 centimetres ; at a distance of ico metres 

 from shore it was 14 centim., and further out the ice was so thin 

 that it could not support the weight of a man; but some 15 

 metres further off the ice reached anew a thickness of 10 centi- 

 metres and more, and the greatest thickness was discovered in 

 the middle of the lake, where it reached as much as 43 centi- 

 metres, being formed by the superposition of piects of floating 

 ice. It is worthy of notice that nearly throughout the surface of 

 the lake, the ice was covered with a red powder, which some- 

 times coloured the ice and even the cracks in it with an intense 

 red colour. The powder will be analysed to discover whether it 

 is not due to diatomacea?. 



The pilous system in man is just now attracting a special amount 

 of attention from physiologists. Not only have Mad. Koyer and 

 Mr. Stainland Wake treated the subject from various points of 

 view — the former considering it in reference to the question of 

 atavism and its relation to certain changed conditions of the 

 dental system — but Dr. Ecker also has contributed his part to 

 the discussion by pa-sing in review the anomalies of the hairy 

 system in man. The instances of hypertrichosis in woman, col- 

 lected by him, include cases from the time of Aristotle to our 

 own day, Herr Ecker having himself assisted at the autopsy at 



Friburg of a woman, otherwise of normal development, with 

 thick moustaches and a long flowing beard. 



A Paris engineer, M. de Combettes (we learn from La 

 Nature), has contrived a curious toy, in which imitation fish are 

 made to perform evolutions in a vessel of water. The fish are 

 of tin similar to those sometimes drawn about with a magnet. 

 But in the present case the mechanism is concealed, and at the 

 operator's will the fish swim in circles, now in one direction, 

 now in the opposite. In the wooden support of the vessel is 

 concealed a small magneto-electric motor, which acts on a piece 

 of soft iron in the fish, and by its motion carries them alon^with 

 it. With the aid of a commutator the motion is reversed. 



del it Tern is the title of anew popular journal of Astronomy 

 and Meteorology, to be published fortnightly at Brussels, edited 

 by several astronomers and meteorologists of Brussels Obser- 

 vatory. 



"A Year's Work in Garden and Greenhouse,'' by Mr. 

 George Glenny (Chatto and Windus) will, we have no doubt, be 

 found serviceable to amateurs. 



The Annual Reports for 1878-9 of the Belfast Naturalists 

 Field Club speak favourably of its progress and of increased 

 work by the members. Several of the papers read are given in 

 abstract ; they are mostly geological. 



The Natural History Journal of the Societies of Friends' 

 Schools for February is as good and varied as usual. There 

 is an interesting paper on "Some freaks of Polypods and 

 lleai tstongue," by Mr. J. E. Clark, with a fine photograph 

 from nature. 



The Second Annual Report of the Dulwich College Science 

 Society, speaks favourably of its progress. Some good papers 

 by members of the -Society are given in the report, and others by 

 outsiders, as Mr. W. L. Distant on Entomology, ami Mr. 

 Mtldola on Spectrum Analysis. 



From the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology we have 

 received a useful " List of Dredging Stations occupied by the 

 U.S. Coast Survey Steamers Corwin, Bibb, Hassler, and Blake 

 from 1S67 to 1S79." 



The Algerian paper Akhbor announces the formation of an 

 Algerian Company for cultivation of the Sahara. The means 

 proposed are the systematic boring of artesian uells in carefully 

 selected spots. The Company is to be connected somehow 

 with the future Transalgerian Railway Company. 



Mr. F. Watters, one of H.M.'s Consuls in China, has 

 lately published at Shanghai a work, entitled "A Guide to the 

 Tablets in a Temple of Confucius," which forms a complete key 

 to the official hagiology of China. 



From Cooktown in Queensland it is announced that some 

 Chinese have formed a company and taken land for growing 

 sugar, rice, and coffee. They are thought to have a good chance 

 of success, as the soil is very rich. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Fallow Deer (Cetvus llama), European, 

 presented by Mr. Louis Hirsch ; a Scops Eared Owl [Scops gut), 

 European, two Rufous-necked Weaver Birds (Ilyphan'ornis 

 textor) from West Africa, presented by Mr. W. II. St. Quintan ; 

 an Allen's Galago {Galago al.'cni) from Fernando Po, a Serval 

 (Felis serval), a Broad-fronted Crocodile [Crocodilus frou/atns) 

 from West Africa, eight Mandarin Ducks [Aix gahriatlata) 

 from China, eight Summer Ducks (Aix sponsa), a Kittiwake 

 Gull (Kissa tridactyla) from North America, two Grey-headed 

 Love Birds [Agaporms cana) from Madagascar, five Common 

 Lapwings (Vanellus cristattis), European, purchased. 



