474 



NATURE 



[March 1 8, 1880 



Engelmakn of Leipzig announces the appearance in April 

 of a new botanical serial, Botanische J ahrbikher fiir systcmatik 

 Pflanzengescliichte ttnd Pflanicngeographie, edited by Prof. A. 

 Engler of Kiel. Tbejournal will appear at intervals of from 

 three to six months, in numbers of from four to six sheets. The 

 iirst pnrt will contain papers by Oswald Heer, Alph. de Candolle, 

 E. Warming, O. Beccari, and Prof. Engler. 



The first ordinary meeting of the Epping Forest and County 

 of Essex Naturalists' Field Club was held at the head-quarters, 

 3, St. John's Terrace, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, on February 2S, 

 the president, Mr. Raphael Meldola, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., &c, 

 presiding, Nearly seventy Members were present. The minutes 

 of the Foundation Meeting having been read and confirmed, the 

 President proceded to deliver an inaugural address on the objects 

 and work of the club. He said their Society, in general terms, 

 might be said to have for its scope the study of nature in the 

 field. Although not quite two months old, it already numbered 

 more than 160 original Members. It was unnecessary, he thought, 

 for them to plead any excuse for their raison d'etre, it only 

 remained for them to show those who had so readily extended 

 the hand of encouragement, by the future work of the Members, 

 that the sympathy had not been given in vain. They now looked 

 forward, he might add, with confidence to receiving from their 

 Members substantial support in the way of contributions to their 

 publications, exhibitions of specimens at their meetings, and the 

 discussion of problems in natural science in that amicable spirit 

 which was most conducive to the real advancement of know- 

 ledge. In forming a Society such as the Epping Forest 

 Club, their primary object was, of course, the furthering of 

 science ; the annual addition of something, however humble, 

 to the general stock of human knowledge. Their chief 

 object — the advancement of natural science — would be best 

 effected by the publication of original papers, notes, and 

 discussions ; but they must likewise bear in mind that science 

 will also be indirectly promoted by mutual intercourse and 

 instruction, and, above all, by fostering and educating the 

 scientific faculty in their younger members. He impressed upon 

 the members that their most useful work would first be the 

 observation and recording of the phenomena of that district 

 which they had fixed upon as the field for their studies. With 

 this alone they had a large and pleasant task in hand. In the 

 course of time, and as their society continued to increase — as it 

 surely would if it only fulfilled the promises of its early youth — 

 they should hope to establish permanent collections in a museum, 

 and any contributions of specimens to form the nucleus of such 

 a public collection would at any time be welcome. Mr. 

 Meldola suggested that a " Mu eum Fund" be started for that 

 purpose. He pointed out the obvious advantages of having in 

 one building their collections, library and meeting room, and 

 suggested that it would be best for the members to endeavour to 

 furnish the museum as far as possible from specimens collected 

 by themselves in the county. The secretary then read a paper 

 communicated to the club by Mr. R. M. Christy, of Chignal, 

 near Chelmsford, on the occurrence of the great bustard 

 {Otis tarda, L.), and the rough-legged buzzard (Buleo lagopits), 

 near Chelmsford, during the winter of 1879. The meeting 

 then resolved itself into a conversazione. 



Prof. Borlinetto, of the University of Padua, suggested 

 some time ago the employment of cardboard covered with a film 

 of collodion in the construction of the electrophorus. The 

 instrument yielded excellent results, the sparks obtained from it 

 being sensibly longer than those derived from an ordinary elec- 

 trophorus of resin and shellac of the same size. Collodion is an 

 extremely electrical substance, and becomes negatively electrified 

 when rubbed with all other known substances. An electrical 

 paper was also employed by Schonbein in the construction of an 

 electrical machine. 



The report of a committee of the Franklin Institute, which 

 recently spent five days in examining the action of Irwin's steam 

 injector and ejector, appears in the journal for February. They 

 consider Mr. Irwin has contributed a valuable improvement in 

 injectors, increasing their power of augmentation to above twice 

 that of the pressure of steam used for practical working without 

 waste, and about four times with waste at the overflow. It 

 seems to be a general law that the lower the steam employed, the 

 higher could the proportional augmentation of pressure be 

 carried. Among the peculiarities of Irwin's apparatus is that of 

 the water-supply pipe and overflow being set at an angle of 45° 

 to the axis of the instrument ; also the permitting of free entrance 

 of atmospheric air at and through the overflow ; both of them, it 

 is claimed, increasing materially the power of augmentation. 



Prof. Thury, of Geneva, contributes to the Archives des 

 Sciences (February 15) a curious paper on the time required to 

 make a survey of the heavens with different magnifying powers of 

 telescope. Such estimates, he points out, do not admit of great 

 exactness, but nevertheless are of interest with regard to forming 

 a plan of observation, and also with a view to answering the 

 question : What are the chances that an object of determinate 

 visibility, existing in the heavens, should have hitherto remained 

 unperceived ? and what chances are there of discovering new 

 objects with an instrument of given power? 



A Melbourne paper states that arrangements are being made 

 there to work a copper mine near Dotswood, Queensland, where 

 an extensive and rich lode of copper is known to exist. The ore 

 is described as being of the richest kind known, viz., virgin 

 copper and red oxide, and specimens examined have yielded 58*2 

 per cent, of co, per and 5 dwt. of gold and 4 oz. of silver per 

 ton of ore. 



The students of the Institution of Civil Engineers have 

 been recently invited to take part in a series of supplemental 

 meetings of members of their body to take place on the under- 

 mentioned dates, when the following papers will be read and 

 discussed : — March 12 — "Storage Reservoirs," by Walter Cradoc 

 Davies, Stud. Inst. C.E. March 19— "The Manufacture of 

 Bessemer Steel Rails," by Horace Allen, Stud. Inst. C.E. — 

 April 2 — " The Construction of Brick and Concrete Egg-shaped 

 Sewers," by Ernest van Putttn, Stud. Inst. C.E. April 9 — 

 ''Small Motive Power," by H. 3. Hele Shaw, Stud. Inst. C.E. 

 April 16— "Railway Tyres and Tyre' Fastenings," by Robert 

 Read, Stud. Inst. C.E. The chair will be taken at seven o'clock 

 on each evening, and successively by Mr. Giles, M.P., Mr. 

 C. Win. Siemens, F.R.S., Mr. R. Rawlinson, C.B., Dr. Pole, 

 F. R.S., and Mr. Berkley, Members of Council. 



A deplorable accident has taken place at the Grenoble 

 Lycee. The professor of chemistry was lecturing on salts of 

 mercury, and had by his side a glass full of a mercurial solution. 

 In a moment of distraction he emptied it, believing he was 

 drinking a glass of cau merit. The unfortunate lecturer died 

 almost immediately. 



Mercury was seen at Paris on May 10 and it with the naked 

 eye, owing to the transparency of the atmosphere and the great 

 elongation of the planet. It had the brightness of a 1st class 

 star, and was of a yellowish colour. The observation was made 

 by MM. Henry brothers, at the Paris Observatory. 



Etna is again tranquil, its summit is once more covered with 

 snow, and an ascent is contemplated, with a view to examine 

 the alterations caused in the crater by the recent eruptions. 



We have received the first number of the Bulletin of the 

 Algerian Scientific Association, the object of which is to popu- 

 larise and develop scientific studies in Algeria, and to facilitate 

 in every pos ible way the work of its members. This firs 



