September 12, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



267 



bureau of education as the second of its series of 

 circulars for 1884, accompanied by a bibliography of 

 the subject so far as American and English authors 

 are concerned, containing about fourteen hundred 

 titles. More than as many German works are known, 

 and publications are abundant in other countries. 

 A comparative view of a hundred and twelve alpha- 

 bets from 1602 to 1882 is given on a single sheet. 

 The use of shorthand has largely increased in the 

 United States within the past five years. In Wash- 

 ington the management of some of our scientific 

 bureaus, on their present extended scale, would be 

 almost impossible without it. Certainly the efficiency 

 of bureau service is vastly increased by its use. 



— The April number of Memorie della Societa degli 

 spettroscopixti italiani contains a paper by Dr. J. Hil- 

 fiker, entitled " Premiere etude sur les observations 

 du diametre du soleil faites a l'Observatoire de Neu- 

 chatel de 1S62 a 1883," in which these observations 

 are discussed with reference to a supposed variation 

 in the apparent angular diameter of the sun, due to 

 or coincident with the periodicity of the solar spots. 

 The evidence seems to point toward the coincidence 

 of the lesser diameters with the epoch of maximum 

 spottedness of the sun's surface. 



— The rain-band spectroscope has a rival in the 

 scintillation of the stars, as shown by the studies of 

 Mr. Ch. Montigny {Bull. acad. roy. Belg., April, 1884). 

 He finds that blue scintillations are more frequent 

 on the approach of rain, and considers this the result 

 of the greater quantity of water in the upper atmos- 

 phere. On the basis of the recent continued diminu- 

 tion of blue scintillations, the author ventures the 

 prediction for Belgium, that the series of rainy years 

 beginning with 1876 is now happily ended, and that 

 a series of drier years is about to begin. The obser- 

 vations are of value, but the extension of their con- 

 clusions so far into the future does not seem justified. 



— P. Tacchini has recently issued two reports of his 

 studies in connection with rainfall, — Notasulla osser- 

 vazioni pluviometriche eseguite nelle stazioni forestall 

 di Vallombrosa e di Cansiglio; Le febbri malariche 

 e le meteore nella provincia di Roma: Roma, 1884. 

 The first exhibits the results of rain-measures from 

 1872 to 1880 in open fields and under trees. The 

 ratio of the latter to the former was from 0.74 to 0.64 

 under fir-trees, and 0.76 under beech-trees, and the 

 ratio of loss increased in months of less rainfall. 

 These ratios are, however, open to variation; as they 

 depend on only a single gauge for the beech-trees, 

 and on but two for the fir-trees. 



The relation of malarial fevers to the weather in 

 the province of Rome is a more extended study. A 

 series of tables gives, first the number of cases of fever 

 in the various parts of the province recorded for the 

 third quarter of each of the twelve years from 1871 

 to 1882; then the percentages of fever to population, 

 showing an average annual ratio of 6.077 per cent, 

 falling to minima of 2.93 in 1878, and 2.49 in 1882, 

 and reaching a maximum of 11.42 in 1879. These 

 figures are next compared with rainfall, cloudiness, 

 temperature, and winds; and there is found a clear 



correspondence between the fall of rain in March, 

 April, and May, and the fevers of July, August, and 

 September; an inverse relation between the cloudi- 

 ness in June, July, and August, and the fevers 

 of the third quarter; a minimum of fever with a 

 maximum of sirocco winds; and certain indistinct 

 relations of the other elements. All these results 

 are well indicated in diagrams, as well as in tables. 

 They give an increased value to the careful study of 

 rainfall. 



— The Electrical review states that the Jabloch- 

 koff electric candle, the pioneer of all arc-lighting 

 on a practical scale, has ceased, after a period of more 

 than five and a half years, to illuminate the Thames 

 embankment, by reason of the termination of the 

 contract with the Metropolitan board of works. The 

 lights were put up in 1878 for a three-months' trial: 

 consequently the works were not of a permanent 

 character. Yet the lights, with the exception of a few 

 occasional mishaps, have given general satisfaction. 

 No more exposed position could have been selected 

 for such a trial, and the successful working of the 

 system under the circumstances still further proves 

 its value. It is an open secret that the price (one 

 and a half pence per hour per lamp) paid for the 

 lights resulted in a considerable loss to the company. 

 From the recent address of Sir J. Bazalgette at the 

 opening meeting of the Institution of civil engineers 

 this season, it appears that twice the illuminating- 

 power is obtained on the embankment from the Jab- 

 lochkoff lights as could have been obtained from 

 gas, if the same money were expended: in other 

 words, the price should have been threepence per 

 hour, as compared with the same light from gas. 



— According to the Revue scientiftque, June 21, a 

 distinguished officer of the French army has studied 

 the recently discovered coal-beds in Algeria, and who 

 gives interesting details in the following passage from 

 a letter to the Geographical society of Paris: — 



It was at Bou-Saada, that I first heard of the 

 coal reported to be found in Algeria. Coal is found 

 all along the oued Bou-Saada, — a large river mean- 

 dering through a country formed of almost vertical 

 (80°) strata of reddish limestone. These strata lie 

 parallel to the course of the river, so that it seems 

 often to flow between two quite regular walls, whose 

 summits are worn by the winter rains. This for- 

 mation belongs, I believe, to the lower cretaceous. 

 The traces of coal visible in the strongly eroded crop- 

 pings which form the bed of the river are very slight 

 (from .001 of a metre to .002 of a metre) : they seem 

 inseparable from the grayish-blue, sandy strata, 

 which, at least in the exposed portions, are very small. 

 This sandstone is hard and compact, often spangled 

 with bright grains, which are, without doubt, iron 

 pyrites. These are the first indications of tlie beds 

 in question. 



Mr. Pinard, who devoted himself to an examina- 

 tion of this bed, had shafts sunk at the places where 

 he had determined the presence of croppings. There 

 are three of these shafts, — two very near each other, 

 3.5 kilometres from the oasis toward the south, on the 

 left bank of the oued ; and the third is a half-kilometre 



