152 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Aug. 17, 1888. 



done a good deal towards the civilisation of the globe. 

 Engineers must go before the missionaries to make the 

 roads and provide water for them. The work of the 

 students then on view displayed great aptitude on their 

 part and reflected credit on the teachers. Mr. J. W. 

 Wilson, the principal, said the school had been estab- 

 lished sixteen years and that was the forty-seventh 

 occasion upon which certificates had been awarded. 

 Between 700 and 800 students had passed through the 

 school, many of whom were doing well. He mentioned 

 that seven or eight of their old pupils were now engaged 

 as engineers in the construction of the Manchester Ship 

 Canal. 



National Co-operative Exhibition. — On August 18 th 

 an exhibition of the skill of workmen in their own trades 

 will be opened at the Crystal Palace in connection with 

 the National Co-operative Festival. The competition 

 will be amongst working-men members of the Industrial 

 Co-operative Societies throughout the kingdom, and the 

 special facilities offered to them to compete, by their 

 respective societies agreeing to pay carriage on all 

 exhibits, should open the door to a very large and 

 representative display of individual work. The prize 

 list is a good one, and the Council of the Society of Arts 

 — who have promised to appoint the judges — will also 

 award one of their bronze medals in eighteen of the 

 principal classes. The Secretary, Mr. W. Broomhall, 1, 

 Norfolk Street, Strand, will supply any further par- 

 ticulars. 



Earthquakes in Norway. — Dr. Hans Reusch, of the 

 Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who is engaged in 

 collecting particulars of the earthquakes which occur in 

 Norway yearly, has issued his report for 1887, from which 

 it appears that earthquakes are far more frequent in Nor- 

 way than has hitherto been imagined. Reports were 

 received of twenty-three, all of which were faint except 

 three. One occurred on the night of May 7th, in the Bom- 

 mel Islands, on the west coast, and was accompanied by 

 subterranean detonations; another in the islands of Vaero 

 and Rost, at the extreme point of the Lofodden group, 

 where doors and windows clattered, and the slates on the 

 roofs were pitched off. Again, on November 5th, a 

 severe shock of earthquake was felt at Bodo, on the north- 

 west coast. Of the minor shocks those which frequently 

 occurred on the Yttero are particularly remarkable, as 

 this island lies far out in the ocean, off the coast of 

 Sondfjord. 



The Public Health. — The Registrar-General reports 

 that the deaths registered last week in twenty-eight 

 great towns of England and Wales corresponded to an 

 annual rate of i6 - o per 1,000 of their aggregate popula- 

 tion. In London 2,530 births and 1,309 deaths were 

 registered. In allowing for increase of population, the 

 births were 87, and the deaths 473, below the average 

 numbers in the corresponding weeks of the last ten 

 years. The annual death-rate per 1,000 from all causes, 

 which had been 157, 15-8, and 15-9 in the three preced- 

 ing weeks, was again is'9 last week. During the first 

 five weeks of the current quarter the death-rate averaged 

 15-6 per 1,000, and was 6-o below the mean rate in the 

 corresponding periods of the ten years 1878-87. The 

 1,309 deaths included 29 from measles, 18 from scarlet 

 fever, 19 from diphtheria, 25 from whooping cough, 9 from 

 enteric fever, 121 from diarrhoea and dysentery, 4 from 



cholera and choleraic diarrhcea, and not one from small- 

 pox, typhus, or ill-defined forms of continued fever ; thus, 

 225 deaths were referred to these diseases, being 278 

 below the corrected average weekly number. The deaths 

 referred to diseases of the respiratory organs, which had 

 been 166 and 160 in the two preceding weeks, rose last 

 week to 167, but were 25 below the corrected average. 

 Different forms of violence caused 49 deaths ; 42 were 

 the result of negligence or accident, among which were 

 17 from fractures and contusions, 5 from burns and 

 scalds, 5 from drowning, and 9 of infants under one 

 year of age from suffocation. In Greater London 3,318 

 births and 1,593 deaths were registered, corresponding 

 to annual rates of 31 '3 and i5'o per 1,000 of the esti- 

 mated population. 



Archaeological Congress. — The annual congress of the 

 Archaeological Institute was opened on Thursday in last 

 week, in the New Municipal Buildings at Leamington. In 

 the Architectural Section Chancellor Ferguson read a 

 paper on the " Castles in the District." This was followed 

 by one on " The Great Wall of China," prepared by Mr. 

 E. T. C. Werner, of H.B.M. Legation, Pekin. In the 

 afternoon the members of the Institute paid a visit to 

 Warwick. At St. Mary's Church the Rev. J. Case read 

 an interesting paper on the building itself; and Mr. A. 

 Hartshorne, F.S.A., commented upon the monuments in 

 the Beauchamp Chipel. From there the party pro- 

 ceeded to the Museum, and subsequently visited 

 Leycester's Hospital and the Castle, where Mr. Harts- 

 horne read a second paper, and Professor E. C. Clark 

 described the famous " Warwick Vase." 



On Friday a visit was made to Baginton Church, where 

 Mr. W. G. Fretton acted as guide over the church and 

 the site of the ancient castle. From Baginton the party 

 made their way on to Stoneleigh, where the rrins and 

 remains of the ancient abbey were explained and com- 

 mented upon by Mr. Fretton. They then inspected the 

 modern mansion of Lord Leigh, and the pictures and 

 other treasures belonging to the family. They also were 

 shown the interior of Stoneleigh Church, with its fine 

 Ncrman doorway, chancel arch, and curious font, and 

 other decorations and monuments, including that to the 

 Duchess of Dudley, who was a daughter of the noble 

 House of Leigh. Their next halt was at Kenilworth, 

 where Mr. Hartshorne acted as their guide and in- 

 terpreter, showing them the ground plan of the castle as 

 it was in the days of Elizabeth, almost surrounded by 

 the lake, now dry. Leaving Kenilworth, they went on to 

 Guy's Cliff, and were conducted through the little chapel 

 and hermitage by Mr. Hartshorne. 



On Saturday the ancient city of Coventry, so rich in 

 mediaeval buildings and events, was visited. Mr. W. G. 

 Fretton, F.S.A., acted as guide. Among the places 

 specially examined were St. Mary's Hall, St. Michael's 

 and Trinity Churches, the Benedictine Priory and the 

 site of the ancient Cathedral Church of Coventry and the 

 Hospitium adjoining. The remains of the ancient walls 

 and gates of the city were next inspected, and then St, 

 John's Hospital, so long used as a free grammar school, 

 the Collegiate Church of St. John, and the Bablake 

 Hospital. After lunch Mr. Fretton conducted the mem- 

 bers over the Palace Yard, the buildings of the White 

 Friars or Carmelites (now used as the Coventry Union), 

 St. Anne's (formerly the Carthusian Monastery), the 

 Park Walls, the Manor House of Cheylesmore, the Grey 

 Friars (now Christ Church), and Ford's Hospital. 



