204 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 109. 



remove their most valuable goods, and reach open 

 ground before the arrival of the shock. 



— A recent issue of La Nature (Jan. 3, 1885), de- 

 scribing an earthquake which occurred in the valley 

 of the Durance in south-eastern France at eleven 

 p.m.. on Nov. 27, 1884, notices and illustrates this 

 curious phenomenon. 



" The roof of a chalet at Sainte Catherine was sud- 

 denly transformed into a vibrating plate, and was 

 broken in several equi-distant places. These injuries 

 could not be attributed to the fall of bricks from 

 the chimneys. The slates were dislodged, and not 

 broken ; and the exposed portions of the wood-work, 

 far from being in the vertical line from the chimneys, 

 were found at precisely equal distances from each 

 other. Moreover, the outside chimneys have not lost 

 a single brick, and yet the roof is as much injured in 

 these two places as in the others." 



CHALET AT ST. CATHERINE, SHOWING ROOF BROKEN BY 

 EARTHQUAKE. 



The chalet referred to is represented in the accom- 

 panying illustration as a brick building with sloping 

 roof, divided by a central projecting gable, and sur- 

 mounted by a row of six chimneys, each capped with 

 a large flat stone. The end chimneys are uninjured; 

 but the capstones of the four middle chimneys have 

 been more or less moved from their places, and one 

 has disappeared entirely, making a hole in the roof 

 by its fall. Besides this hole, which is at the upper 

 side, and close to the chimney from which the stone 

 fell, there are upon the lower part of the roof five 

 spots where the slates are removed, as if these had 

 been the ventral segments of a stationary vibration 

 set up in the roof; its normal period of vibration, 

 when thus divided, happening to agree with the 

 period of some of the vibrations caused by the earth- 

 quake. 



— Nature states that fresh shocks of earthquake 

 occurred on Jan. 27 and 28 in the hot-spring district 

 of southern Styria. A severe and prolonged shock 

 was felt at Valparaiso at four o'clock on the morning 

 of the 27th ; and on the 31st a shock destroyed eight 

 Arab houses in Algiers : this last was also felt at Setif. 



— The Rev. Mr. Doane writes from Ponape, Caro- 

 line Islands, in October, 1884, of the arrival, in large 

 quantities, of pumice-drift ejected by Krakatoa a year 

 before. It is a boon to the natives, who crush the 

 pumice, and fertilize the arid coral sand of the low 

 atolls with it. 



— The telephone is to be introduced into the Kongo 

 region by the International African association. 



— Capt. Scopinich, of the Austrian brig Mater, 

 reports having experienced terrific earthquake shocks 

 on the 22d of December, 1884, in the vicinity of the 

 Azores. The weather was very fine at the time, with 

 a light easterly breeze. 



— The committee on thought-transference, of the 

 American society for psychical research, has issued a 

 circular requesting the co-operation of all persons 

 interested in investigating the subject ; that is, in 

 ascertaining whether " a vivid impression or a dis- 

 tinct idea in one mind can be communicated to 

 another mind without the intervening help of the 

 recognized organs x of sensation." It is the intention 

 of the committee to make experiments upon persons 

 supposed to have the faculty of ' mind-reading.' 

 The committee also desires to collect statistics as 

 to experiments of uniform character, but made by a 

 large number of observers, similar to those made by 

 Charles Richet, and described in Science (vol. v. p. 

 132). Precise directions for making each series of 

 experiments are appended to this circular. In en- 

 tering on this inquiry, the committee wish to be 

 understood as expressing no opinion, on one side 

 or the other, in regard to the reality of the supposed 

 thought-transference. They simply seek to institute 

 a thorough and entirely unbiassed investigation of 

 the class of phenomena known under the name of 

 ' mind-reading,' in the hope of taking at least a dis- 

 tinct step towards the true explanation of those phe- 

 nomena, whatever that explanation may be. All 

 inquiries and communications should be addressed 

 to the secretary, Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, 19 Brattle 

 Street, Cambridge, Mass. 



— In their report on underground circuits, the com- 

 mittee of examiners of the Philadelphia electrical 

 exhibition call attention to the desirability, in the 

 present tentative condition of our knowledge of un- 

 derground wires, of all conduits built for such pur- 

 pose being so constructed as to be easily adaptable to 

 a number of systems. In regard to conducting elec- 

 tric currents underground, the committee records its 

 opinion that there can be no doubt of the ultimate 

 feasibility of the scheme. 



— The first number of Petermanrts mittlieiluwjen 

 for this year appears under the editorship of Dr. A. 

 Supan, well known for his writings on matters of 

 physical geography. The articles are chiefly con- 

 cerned with explorations and general descriptions; 

 but continued attention is promised to physical geog- 

 raphy as well, and the current bibliography that 

 closes the number includes mention and abstract of 

 several papers of this character. Most of these ab- 

 stracts are by Dr. Supan himself, while the monthly 

 review of exploration is by Dr. Wichmann. 



— The foundation of a chair of hygiene at the 

 University of Berlin is an accomplished fact. Be- 

 sides the professorship, a laboratory for hygienic re- 

 search is to be instituted. 



— The Italian explorer, Signor Franzoi, intends to 

 undertake another six or seven years' expedition into 

 central Africa. 



