October 5, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



485 



previously attended their efforts, and a large number 

 of specimens had been obtained. On leaving the 

 Canaries, the expedition would proceed to the Cape 

 Verde Islands, and thence along the so little known 

 African coast. 



— Mr. H. J. Johnston-I^evis publishes the accom- 

 panying map of Ischia (scale 1 : 80,000) in Nature, 

 with some further account of the recent earthquake. 

 In company with Prof. P. Franco of Naples, lie trav- 

 elled over the whole island without detecting any 

 sign of volcanic action. If isoseisraal lines are 

 drawn over the injured districts, we find, he says, 

 " that they assume the form of elongated ellipsoids, 

 •whose major axes run nearly east and west." In the 



surface. The rupturing of this plate-lil<e fissure was 

 apparently greatest at a point nearly midway between 

 it.s extremities." The ancient eruptive centres and 

 craters are marked on the map in dotted circles. 



— Ensign S. J. Brown, U. S. navy, has been elected 

 professor of mathematics in the navy, a?id assigned 

 to duty at the Naval observatory in Washington. 



— Thouar writes from La Paz, under date of May 

 :!1 last, that in his search for Crevaux he had ar- 

 rived by the way of Tacna, across the Cordilleras, 

 on the 2Sth. The Bolivian government, by SIg. A. 

 Quijarro, minister of foreign affairs, had shown great 

 interest in the plans, and desire to assist to the extent 

 of its power. An expeditionary corps had been 



ISCHIA 



GROTTA OE^LA TtRRA 



first isoseisnial area, a, a, destruction was total; in the 

 second, 6, 6, many houses are fallen, and the rest will 

 require rebuilding; in the third, c, c, they were se- 

 verely fissured ; the fourth, in which houses were only 

 very slightly fissured, not only includes the whole 

 island, but must extend into the sea some distance. 

 " From a careful examination of observed azimuths 

 and angles of emergence, all point to a plate-shaped 

 focus, whose strike extends in a line from Fontana, 

 just west of Menella, to near the beach at Lacco. 

 The plane of this fissure is probably roughly perpen- 

 dicular to the surface, but may slightly dip towards 

 the east, as the isoseisnials are slightly nearer on the 

 eastern side of the seismic vertical, which, as a neces- 

 sity, is not represented by a point, but a line on the 



equipped, and directed to march on Teyo, the Toba 

 capital, which it is designed to occupy while part of 

 the force descends the right bank of the I'ilconiayo to 

 Ascension. This expedition should have left Caiza 

 in the month of June last, while, on the 3d, Thouar 

 intended to start for Caripari, Bid Oruro, Potosi, Sucre, 

 and Tarija. 



— Endeavors have been made during the past ses- 

 sion of the English parliament to obtain such amend- 

 ments of the Factory acts as would protect not only 

 the overworked and overheated workers in the bake- 

 houses, but those desperate men wlio face certain 

 death by poisoning in the manufiicture of white lead. 

 N"o act of parliament, however, will be of any real 

 use until some improved process makes safety as 



