94 SCIENCE, 
The exhibits were, to a large extent, the same 
as those which were shown at the May soirée, 
and which we have already mentioned. Of ad- 
ditional exhibits the Times notes a series of 
Japanese paintings exhibited by Mr. W. Gowland 
which were an interesting novelty, showing as 
they do the different modes of depicting animal 
and plant life practiced by some of the great 
masters of the art of painting in Japan. So, 
too, were Sir Martin Conway’s views in the 
Bolivian Andes, which were also exhibited dur- 
ing the evening on the screen by means of the 
lantern. Dr. Francisco Moreno showed a 
superb series of photographs and photographic 
panoramas illustrative of scenery in Patagonia. 
The models of the Turbinia, of a torpedo-boat 
destroyer and an Atlantic liner of 38,000 i. h. 
p. were of special interest. For more reasons 
than one Mrs. Ayrton’s experiments on the 
hissing of the electric are attracted considerable 
attention. Quite a novelty was Professor Had- 
don’s collection of polished stone implements 
from the Baram district, Sarawak, Borneo. 
This is the first fruit, so far as public exhibi- 
tion goes, of the important expedition to Tor- 
res Straits and Borneo, from which Professor 
Haddon has just returned. The Milne hori- 
zontal-pendulum seismograph, with specimens of 
the seismograms yielded by it, exhibited by the 
Seismological Committee of the British Associa- 
tion, was also new. It is a specimen of the 
earthquake records which are now being kept 
at a considerable number of stations established 
at widely-separated localities. In addition to 
the Andean views of Sir Martin Conway, Dr. 
Tempest Anderson exhibited, in the lecture- 
room, by means of the lantern, some very 
striking views of Vesuvius in eruption, and 
Mr. Herbert Jackson showed experiments dis- 
playing some new phenomena of phosphores- 
cence. 
In the House of Commons Sir 8. Montague 
recently called the attention of the President 
of the Board of Trade to a paragraph in the 
sixth report of Mr. T. Worthington on British 
trade in South America to the following effect: 
That the metric system is the only one recog- 
nized ; that an English foot-rule cannot be le- 
gally imported, and that the trade of Great 
Britain suffers greatly by not adopting compul- 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 238. 
sorily the metric system used by almost all the 
the civilized nations of the world. He also re- 
ferred to the Consular report on the trade of 
Amsterdam issued last month to the effect that, 
unless Great Britain adopted the metric system 
of weights and measures, it might look on the 
Continental and perhaps on other markets as 
lost to it; and asked whether Mr. Ritchie would 
facilitate the adoption of the metrical system in 
Great Britain by using metrical weights and 
measures in the government departments. 
Mr. Ritchie replied that there is now no reason 
why any manufacturer or trader in Great 
Britain may not carry on his foreign trade in 
terms of metric weights and measures. He 
stated that he was in communication with some 
government departments on the concluding 
paragraph of the question. 
THE Volta centenary exhibiton at Como, to 
which we have already called attention, in- 
cludes some interesting relics of Volta. These 
are contained, according to Mr. G. H. Bryan, 
(Nature) in one room in the exhibition buildings 
set apart for the ‘Cimelii di Volta,’ under 
which head are comprised Volta’s physical ap- 
paratus, original manuscripts of his papers, his 
letters, diplomas and many of his personal 
effects. The greater part of these relics are 
exhibited by the Reale Istituto Lombardo, un- 
der whose auspices the collection was formed 
by public subscription in the years 1861 to 
1864; for this collection one of the rooms be- 
longing to the Society at Milan has been 
specially set apart. Other relics, chiefly per- 
sonal, are exhibited by Professor Alessandro 
Volta and Professor Zanino Volta. The Uni- 
versity of Pavia exhibits several electroscopes, 
condensers and similar electrostatic apparatus; 
and other exhibits are lent by the Como Mu- 
seum. The manuscripts include the following : 
(1) A letter to Volta from the French physicist 
Nollet, dated September 18, 1767; (2) A letter 
from Volta to Professor Barletti, of Pavia, dated 
April 18, 1879, containing an anticipation of 
the electric telegraph. Volta suggests the pos- 
sibility of connecting Milan and Como with a 
wire suspended from poles, so that an oper- 
ator at one end of the line could fire an electric 
pistol at the other. (8) A manuscript dated 
May 14, 1782, dealing with animal electricity. 
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