392 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 118. 



periments having been made with the electric light 

 between Suez and Ismailia. But it happened, unfor- 

 tunately, that a bright moon was shining on the 

 night when these experiments were made, the re- 

 sult being that the effect of the electric light was 

 lessened. 



— Capt. W. H. Hill reports, that while on board 

 the schooner Elizabeth, bound from New York to 

 Newbern, N.C., he met with a heavy gale off Hat- 

 teras, wind north-east, heavy sea. He could not clear 

 the Diamond, and had to scud through Hatteras 

 Slough. The sea boarded the vessel, and took the 

 bulwarks away. Fearing for the vessel's safety, oil 

 was poured over the stern, a little at a time, from 

 an ordinary stone jug. This at once smoothed the 

 sea's surface, making it partake of the nature of a 

 ground-swell ; and the Elizabeth went in without 

 shipping any more seas. A brig, seeing the smooth 

 water astern of this vessel, steered for her wake, and 

 ran through under close-reefed topsails, keeping in 

 the smooth water. 



— A summary of observations on earthquake phe- 

 nomena made in Tasmania, during 1883 and 1884, by 

 Commander Shortt of Hobart, records a great num- 

 ber of moderate shocks during these years, although 

 they had been very rare before. Nearly one hundred 

 disturbances were felt at St. Mary's in February, 

 1884 ; and over one thousand have been noted at 

 Gould's Country since April 12, 1883, when the first 

 shock was felt there. These small earthquakes are 

 seldom felt outside of the north-eastern part of Tas- 

 mania; and their origin seems to be a hundred or 

 more miles out to sea, near the border of the deep 

 waters which separate Australia from New Zealand. 



— The Linnean society of New South Wales again 

 offers a prize of one hundred pounds for the best 

 essay on the life-history of the bacillus of typhoid- 

 fever. The essay must be based entirely on original 

 research, the details of which, and of the methods 

 employed, are to be fully explained; to be delivered 

 before Dec. 31, 1885. 



— Mr. C. R. Orcutt of San Diego, Cal., proposes to 

 publish from that place a small quarterly journal de- 

 voted to the study of shells, Crustacea, and radiates, 

 in the interest of students and collectors of the same. 



— The Board of trustees of Indiana university 

 selected Prof. John M. Coulter of Wabash college, 

 and editor of the Botanical gazette, to fill the chair of 

 botany in that institution; but it is understood he 

 has declined the position. 



— In speaking of the erosion of big guns, Capt. 

 Noble recently explained to a representative of the 

 Pall-mall budget that the latest era in gun-making 

 dated back to 1877. The great advance then made 

 resulted directly from experiments with powder. We 

 stepped at once from velocities of fifteen hundred feet 

 to the present velocities of from two thousand feet 

 to twenty-three hundred feet per second. The very 

 high charges now employed (eight hundred and 

 thirty pounds of powder have been fired in a single 

 charge from a hundred-ton gun, and three hundred 



pounds from a gun not quite twenty-five tons in 

 weight), and the relatively very long time during 

 which the high pressure and the temperature of the 

 explosion are continued, have aggravated to a very 

 serious extent the evils due to erosion, and the con- 

 sequent rapid wear of the bores of guns. At the 

 moment of explosion the surfaces of the guns in 

 the vicinity of the charge are in a state of fusion. 

 The heated gases passing over these fused surfaces 

 at a high velocity and pressure, absolutely remove 

 that surface, and give rise to that erosion which is so 

 serious an evil in guns where large charges are em- 

 ployed. All guns are now made with a lining, which 

 is taken out when it has been eroded : the operation 

 may occupy from two to three months. The hun- 

 dred-and-ten gun could not be fired, with a full bat- 

 tering charge (nine hundred pounds of powder), 

 more than a hundred and fifty rounds ; but it will 

 fire an almost indefinite number of smaller charges 

 (say, two-thirds of the full charge) without very 

 serious injury resulting. 



— Messrs. J. de Brettes and P. Lacabanne-Cour- 

 rege left Buenos Ayres in January with the intention 

 of traversing the Grand Chaco at its greatest breadth 

 from Corrientes to Candelaria. Persuaded that the 

 misfortunes of previous explorers were due to the 

 presence with them of a force so large as to excite 

 the suspicions of the Indians, thus bringing on active 

 hostilities, these travellers propose to make the jour- 

 ney, accompanied only by two Indian servants. 



— Victor Giraud, having reached Paris on his re- 

 turn from central Africa, was received with eclat by a 

 deputation from the Sociele de geographie; and it is 

 announced, that, in recognition of the energy, per- 

 severance, and courage with which he pursued his 

 explorations, the Ministry of marine have proposed 

 him for the cross of the Legion of honor. 



— We have received three pamphlets by Dr. Rollin 

 R. Gregg of Buffalo, entitled ' Diphtheria and bacte- 

 ria,' ' Professor Pasteur's experiments, bacteria in 

 various diseases,' and ' The revelations of fibrin.' 

 They embody the results of the writer's so-called 

 scientific experiments upon fibrine, of which material 

 he finds all forms of bacteria to be composed. Inas- 

 much as he gives no reason to suppose that any 

 proper methods of sterilization were employed, and 

 displays his ignorance of the fact that distilled water 

 may be full of micro-organisms, it does not seem 

 possible that these papers will command much atten- 

 tion. Indeed, no such work is worthy of criticism; 

 for the day has passed when the pathogenic proper- 

 ties of bacteria, as such, can be disputed, except as 

 the result of the most careful labor by experts in all 

 the methods of manipulation. 



— In the article on 'Koads from India to central 

 Asia,' in our last issue, in the third line of the third 

 paragraph, second column of p. 361, 'northern' 

 should read 'southern;' and in the first line of the 

 fourth paragraph, in the same column, ' to the south ' 

 should read ' to the north.' In the next to the last 

 line in the first column of the following page, ' 1883 ' 

 should be ' 1881.' 



