410 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 90. 



feet; that the windward gauges receive least and the 

 leeward gauges most rain, as had been stated for 

 buildings by Bache in 1837; and that, in high winds, 

 small gauges do not collect enough rain, the discrep- 

 ancy between eight-inch and three-inch gauges vary- 

 ing as the square of the wind's velocity; and, for 

 velocities of sixty miles an hour, the three-inch 

 receiving only two-thirds of the rain collected by the 

 eight-inch gauge. 



— The elasticity in the carbon filaments of the in- 

 candescent lamps, at least in some of the patterns, is 

 rather remarkable. Take an Edison lamp of about 

 a hundred ohms resistance, and a moderately sharp 

 blow with the hand at right-angles to the plane of the 

 loop will vibrate it so far that it strikes the side of 

 the glass bulb ; and it will continue for two minutes, 

 swiftly vibrating through very slowly decreasing am- 

 plitudes, and with beautifully complicated nodal 

 effects, according to the direction of the blow. So 

 sensitively elastic are some of them, that it is difficult 

 to hold them in the hand so steadily that the upper 

 part of the loop is not blurred by rapid incessant 

 vibrations of small amplitude. 



— The Royal society of New South Wales offers its 

 medal and a money-prize for the best communication 

 (provided it be of sufficient merit) containing the 

 results of original research or observation, upon each 

 of the following subjects. To be sent in not later than 

 May 1, 1885: anatomy and life-history of the Echid- 

 na and Platypus, the society's medal and £25; anat- 

 omy and life-history of Mollusca peculiar to Australia, 

 the society's medal and £25; the chemical composi- 

 tion of the products from the so-called kerosene shale 

 of New South Wales, the society's medal and £25. 

 To be sent in not later than May 1, 1886: on the 

 chemistry of the Australian gums and resins, the 

 society's medal and £25. 



— The committee of the Octagon chapel at Bath, 

 England, where Sir William Herschel was organist 

 from 1766 to 1782, invites subscriptions toward a me- 

 morial-window of one whom they truly call ' by far 

 the most distinguished citizen who ever lived in 

 Bath.' 



— The Illustrirte zeitung reports that the new tor- 

 pedo-boat tried at the recent manoeuvres of the 

 German fleet has proved eminently satisfactory. In 

 addition to its great strength and speed, it has water 

 compartments which can be suddenly filled, and thus 

 sink its deck to the level of the sea, without seriously 

 impairing the speed of the vessel. 



— The London health exhibition has been so suc- 

 cessful, that it is expected the council will have a 

 handsome balance when they close their doors; and 

 they have not yet decided what to do with it. The 

 aggregate of admissions now exceeds two millions 

 and a half, representing a gross taking of a hundred 

 and ten thousand pounds, ten per cent of which may 

 remain when the last liability has been wiped off. 



— Mr. Farini of the Royal aquarium, London, has 

 now on view some of the dwarf race of men reported 

 by several travellers as dwellers in equatorial Africa; 

 and he has invited all anthropologists there to study 



this strange development of the human race. The 

 tallest of them is four feet six inches in height, and 

 professes to be a giant among his own people. They 

 are exceedingly intelligent. 



— The Social science congress this year met at the 

 place of its origin, Birmingham, and attracted a 

 much larger attendance than last year, the programme 

 of work being a fine one. The president of the year, 

 Mr. Shaw Lefevre, in his opening address, reviewed 

 the reaction from the non-intervention views of state 

 policy of Ricardo, Stuart Mill, Bastiat, etc., and stated 

 his opinion that the present " movement for extend- 

 ing the action of the state has not been due only to 

 democracy. It has been demanded almost equally 

 by all classes ; but the greater force of the popular 

 will in parliament has deprived the opposing interest 

 of their power of resistance. . . . The more recent 

 school of political-economists in this country, and 

 still more on the continent, has largely departed 

 from these (earlier) views, and has held, that while 

 free exchange, free labor, and free contract are 

 important principles to maintain, yet the state is 

 bound to interfere when individual interests result 

 in the degradation and oppression of the lower 

 classes, and that it is justified in undertaking those 

 works and functions which can be better attained by 

 it than by individual effort. Almost alone, my friend 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer has been left among philoso- 

 phers, to preach the doctrine of laissezfaire, to raise 

 the banner of individualism against state action, and 

 to denounce what has been done during the last few 

 years as radically wrong in principle, and leading to 

 socialism, or to the ultimate slavery of the masses." 



During the last ten years, he stated, taking the 

 increase of population of England and Wales into 

 account, there had been a decrease of pauperism of 

 thirty per cent, and of serious crime of twenty-two 

 per cent. 



— Prof. W. Braune claims to have discovered some 

 constant principles of arrangement of the veins in 

 the human body, the variability of which has been 

 an anatomical puzzle of long standing. He proposes 

 to publish an atlas in imperial folio under the title 

 'Das venensystem des menschlichen kbrpers.'' The 

 first part with four colored plates, prepared with the 

 collaboration of Mr. E. Harry Fenwick, is now an- 

 nounced by Veit & Co. of Leipzig ; price 45 Rmk. 



— The Prussian authorities are planning a hygienic 

 institute, as a branch of the University of Berlin, 

 similar to the existing institutes of physiology, etc., 

 this branch of knowledge being recognized as neces- 

 sary to the medical profession. It is said that Dr. 

 Koch will be placed at the head of it. 



— Dr. Th. Liebisch, formerly professor of miner- 

 alogy at Greifswald university, has been called to the 

 Konigsberg university. The professorship of physi- 

 ology at Konigsberg has been given to Prof. L. Her- 

 mann (Zurich). Dr. L. Konigsberger, formerly in 

 Vienna, has been called to the professorship of mathe- 

 matics at the university of Heidelberg. Dr. P. Du- 

 bois-Reymond of Tubingen has accepted a call to the 

 Technical school in Berlin. 



