March 4, 1887.] 



SCIENCF. 



209 



sence of a solid substance at a high temperature, 

 it is impossible to cause combustion without flame, 

 and that when a flame is used, it is impossible to 

 make it touch a cold surface. The existence of 

 this impassable cold zone was demonstrated by 

 many curious experiments, and its practical con- 

 sequences were pointed out. There was much of 

 a deceptive character about the mere appearance 

 of flame. 



The New Zealand earthquake of June 10, 1886, 

 and the destruction of the famous terraces, have 

 lately come in for a large share of public atten- 

 tion ; the Society of arts, the Geologists' associa- 

 tion at their annual meeting, and the Geological 

 society, having each recently devoted an evening 

 to it. The readers of papers were respectively, 

 Mr. Kerry Nichols, Mr. W. Lant Carpenter, Cap- 

 tain Hulton, and Mr. J. Martin. In the first two 

 cases some marvellous photographs, taken by the 

 search parties sent up during the eruption, were 

 thrown on the screen. The hydrothermal char- 

 acter of the w^hole w^as well brought out, one 

 striking view being that of a rent in the top of 

 Mount Ruawhia, five hundred feet deep, six hun- 

 dred yards across, and a mile and a half long, 

 which was blown out in three minutes. 



An unusual number of changes are in progress 

 among the staff of the Natural history museum at 

 South Kensington. During the past year the 

 zoological department has lost the services of Mr. 

 E. J. Miers and of Mr. J. J. Quelch, who had 

 charge of the Crustacea and Zoophytes respec- 

 tively. The former gentleooan, however, con- 

 tinues to do unofficial work in the museum ; but 

 Mr. Quelch has gone to Demerara as curator of 

 the museum there. Mr. S. O. Ridley, who has 

 done so much good spongiological work, is about 

 to leave the museum and take orders. The geo- 

 logical department is also on the point of losing 

 its two senior assistants. Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., 

 will shortly return to the scene of his earlier scien- 

 tific work in Australia, where he has received the 

 appointment of paleontologist to the Australian 

 museum and the department of mines at Sydney. 

 The geological department will suff'er consider- 

 ably by the loss of his accurate and comprehen- 

 sive knowledge of invertebrate paleontology, and 

 his wide experience in the arrangement of fossils 

 for exhibition.' It is not too much to say that in 

 this latter respect the British museum is far in ad- 

 vance of any other museum in Eui'ope, as is uni- 

 versally admitted by our continental visitors ; and 

 for this result the museum authorities are very 

 largely indebted to the care and skill of Mr. 

 Etheridge. Almost the same may be said of Mr. 

 W. Da vies, who is about to retire on a well-earned 

 pension, after a prolonged period of service, dur- 



ing which he has had charge of the fossil verte- 

 brates. Although he has published little, he has 

 done very much for vertebrate paleontology, both 

 in the preparation of specimens for investigation 

 and exhibition, and from the unselfish way in 

 which his extensive knowledge has always been 

 unreservedly communicated to other workers. 

 Many important observations which are recorded 

 in paleontological memoirs by various authors are 

 in reality due to the work of Mr. Davies, though 

 this fact has not always been made known by the 

 writers of the memoirs in question. 



The Zoological record, the future existence of 

 which has been in dans;er of late, is now to have 

 a new lease of life. For some time past the sub- 

 scription-list has not sufficed to pay the working 

 expenses, and negotiations were set on foot with 

 Dr. Anton Dohrn, in order, if possible, to bring 

 about a union of the Record with the later estab- 

 lished Zoologischer Jahresbericht. These have 

 fallen through, however, and so the Zoological 

 society is about to undertake the publication of 

 the Record. It will remain under the able editor- 

 ship of Prof. F. J. Bell, who has brought out the 

 last few volumes. These have appeared within 

 the year succeeding that of which the literature is 

 recorded ; and in this respect the English work 

 has the advantage of its German companion, 

 which is, however, much more comprehensive in 

 its scope. 



Fernaentation in relation to bread-making has 

 been investigated by Mr. W. Jago, who com- 

 municated his results to a recent meeting of 

 the London section of the Society of chemical in- 

 dustry. Discarding entirely the prevalent idea 

 that the main object of the fermentation was the 

 aeration of the bread, he described an apparatus, 

 and the results obtained by its use, for comparing 

 the amount of fermentation produced under the 

 same conditions in various elements of the flour 

 separately (e.g., gluten, starch, aqueous extract, 

 etc.), by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide 

 evolved from the same weights in the same peri- 

 ods. The ferment employed in all cases had been 

 the pressed distillers' yeast, usually obtainei from 

 rye. It was elicited in the discussion which fol- 

 lowed, that both the author and others were en- 

 gaged in investigating the separate actions of the 

 different kinds of ferments to be found in bakers' 

 yeast, and, in fact, in endeavoring to put the 

 chemistry of panifaction on the same sound basis 

 as that recently established for the fermentation 

 of beer. These results will be looked for with 

 much interest. 



At the same meeting the first scientific data 

 were given about the recent English-grown 

 tobacco. The percentage of ash was very much 



