26 



SCIENTIFIC NEV\^S. 



[Jan. 13, I S 



at the works of Messrs. Roberts and Dale, Cornbrook, 

 Manchester, picric acid and the picrates are now, by 

 an Order in Council, declared to be explosives coining 

 within the provisions of the Explosives Act. Hitherto 

 they have been regarded as explosives only when 

 manufactured for military or engineering purposes, but 

 not when for use in dyeing or printing. This distinction 

 was not very logical, since they were equally dangerous 

 whatever the purpose for which it or they were ulti- 

 mately designed. The only exceptions are picric acid 

 wholly in solution and picric acid manufactured or stored 

 within a place exclusively devoted to such storage and in 

 such a manner as to prevent it from coming in contact with 

 any basic metallic oxide or oxidising agent, or with any 

 detonator or other article capable of exploding picric 

 acid, or with any fire or light capable of igniting it. 

 We may add that the use of picric acid in dyeing has 

 much declined. 



French Vintage for 1887. — Official returns for the 

 past year show that, in spite of all efforts, the vintage in 

 France is still going on from bad to worse. The quality 

 of the wines is spoken of as rather improved, but they 

 are pronounced very deficient in alcoholic strength, and 

 the quantity of sugar used in ameliorating the wines has 

 increased from 6,031 tons used in 1885, and 27,410 

 tons in 18S6, to 34,982 tons. The total production of 

 wine has been 546,797,000 gallons as against 553,923,000 

 gallons in 1886. In twenty departments there has been 

 an increased yield, but in forty-seven we perceive a 

 falling-ofif. The decrease aifects some of the most impor- 

 tant wine-growing districts, such as the Cote d'Or, the 

 Haute Garonne, the Charente, and the Charente Infe- 

 rieure. In these two last departments, the production 

 is only one-twentieth of what it was in 1875. It is sad 

 that such mischief should have been wrought by the 

 stupidity of persons who would import American vines. 

 Saddest, perhaps, when we reflect that the decline in the 

 consumption of wine, and the substitution of malt 

 liquors and ardent spirits, has led to a great extension of 

 drunkenness in France. 



Death of Prof. A. Dickson. — We much regret 

 having to put on record the death of Dr. Alexander 

 Dickson, Professor of Botany at the University of Edin- 

 burgh. The deceased was bom in Edinburgh in 1836, 

 and died on December 30th, apparently whilst engaged 

 in the game of "curling" on the ice. He had graduated 

 in medicine at the University of his native city in i860, 

 but he turned his whole attention to botanical studies. 

 In 1862 he temporarily occupied the botanical chair at 

 Aberdeen during the illness of Prof. Dickie. Four years 

 later he was appointed to the Botanical Chair at Dublin 

 University, and in 1868 he held also the Professorship of 

 Botany at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. The 

 same year, however, he became Professor of Botany at 



the University of Glasgow, where he remained until 

 1879, when he became Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Edinburgh, and Regius Keeper of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens. His published researches entitle him 

 to a place in the first rank of philosophic botanists. He 

 contributed about fifty important memoirs to the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and he was also 

 a frequent contributor to the Journal of Botany and the 

 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. The Botanic 

 Gardens were much improved under his auspices, and 

 the University is indebted to him for an experimental 

 botanical laboratory. 



The Islington Grand Theatre. — The recent destruc- 

 tion by fire of this building and its contents has afforded 

 another instance of the perverse unwillingness of men to 

 avail themselves of the protection offered bj- science. The 

 electric light had, indeed, been partially introduced, ?'.f., 

 in the auditorium, where the danger of fire is under any ■ 

 circumstances infinitesimally small. But behind the 

 scenes, among the flies, and, in short,wherever highly com- 

 bustible matter was most abundant and the danger 

 greatest, there gas was still supreme. Surely if from any 

 reason there was a difficulty in lighting up the whole 

 theatre electrically, the auditorium is the very part where 

 gas might have been retained with the least risk. A 

 technical contemporary very judiciously recommends 

 that the total banishment of gas from places of amuse- 

 ment should be made one of the fundamental conditions 

 on which a license is granted. 



The People's Lecture Scheme. — The London Society 

 for the Extension of University Teaching and the Gil- 

 christ Trustees are trying a very interesting experiment. 

 They are giving short courses of three lectures free, in 

 suitable halls in different parts of London. Such courses 

 have been arranged in ten different districts, and, so far,, 

 with marked success. The Town Halls of Bermondsey 

 and Shoreditch, which hold from 1,500 to 2,000 persons, 

 have been well filled — we might say, overfilled. The 

 lectures are on scientific subjects, and are illustrated in 

 the most complete manner by experiments, or by the 

 oxy-hydrogen lantern. There is evidently room for a 

 great extension of this scheme, which will present to 

 large masses of the people the more attractive phases of 

 science, and if it does not in all cases lead them on to 

 systematic study, it will, at least, aid in turning away 

 their thoughts from mischievous and degrading subjects. 



Movement of the Earth's Surface. — At the equator, 

 a point on the earth's surface moves rather more than 

 1,000 miles an hour; in latitude 45 deg. north or south, 

 the rate of motion is about 750 miles an hour. London is 

 carried round the earth's axis at the rate of more than 

 ten miles per minute. 



