132 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 157 



ought to be there, points to his spy-glass, and, io ! 

 there it is. If, then, a trained observer with a 

 larger telescope fails to verify his marvel, what 

 better proof is needed that the great telescope is 

 ineffective? It is an axiom in astronomy, that, 

 when once a discovery is made with a large tele- 

 scope, the object can always be seen with a smaller 

 one. This presumes, of course, that the same ob- 

 server uses the two instruments, and that he 

 knows where to look and what to look for with 

 the smaller one. And this in no wise constitutes 

 an argument for equality of the small telescope 

 with the larger ; for with a good atmosphere, and 

 the superior telescopes now made, it is never true 

 that the nature of any celestial object can be made 

 out with a small telescope which a larger one will 

 fail to show more satisfactorily. Taken in connec- 

 tion with the attempts of late years, so far suc- 

 cessful, to set up powerful telescopes on mountain 

 elevations where a correspondingly perfect atmos- 

 phere is obtained, the future of the monster tele- 

 scope is most hopeful. D. P. T. 



MAKING A NEW MERV OASIS. 



The Russians have fixed their minds, says En- 

 gineering, on a new enterprise, well calculated 

 to set on edge the teeth of English and Indian 

 statesmen. This is no other than the formation 

 of a new oasis, as large as that of Merv, along 

 the new frontier to the Oxus, which the Afghan 

 delimitation commission will delineate as soon 

 as the spring weather enables it to quit its 

 winter quarters at Tcharashambe. Briefly, the 

 scheme, which is said to be a sober engineering 

 design, complete in all details, and drawn up on 

 the spot by the surveyors of General Annenkoff , 

 the constructor of the Transcaspian railway, pro- 

 vides for cutting the bank of the Oxus near 

 Tchardjni, and allowing the water to flow afresh 

 through some ancient channels running in the 

 direction of Merv. 



There is no particular novelty in the idea, the 

 oasis of Khiva being formed entirely of country 

 irrigated by an elaborate system of canals running 

 out from the Oxus near its entrance into the Aral 

 Sea, while the Merv oasis is of a similar character, 

 and uses up all the water of the Murghab. The 

 channels, we have said, already run into the 

 desert near Tchard jni ; and a careful series of 

 levels, taken during the autumn, show, that if the 

 bank of the river be cut, and the channels cleared 

 of drift in one or two places, the water will run 

 freely for sixty or seventy miles. The nomads 

 can then be left to manage the rest of the business 

 themselves : for the natives of Merv and Khiva 

 are extremely clever in making irrigation canals, 



and they would speedily establish a network, and 

 convert the clayey expanse now devoid of vege- 

 tation into a green oasis, as fertile as any in 

 central Asia. 



Readers of O'Donovan's and Marvin's books on 

 Merv will not have forgotten, that as far as the 

 Turcomans convey water from the Murghab, 

 there amazing productiveness prevails, although 

 immediately beyond is a desert. All that is 

 really needed, therefore, is to withdraw from the 

 Oxus a sufficient quantity of water (and Annen- 

 koff 's calculations show that abundance can be 

 spared), and a year would be sufficient to create 

 an oasis capable of supporting a quarter of a 

 million people. In that case Russia could march 

 troops from Askabad and Merv to the farthest 

 parts of Turkestan, and despatch the Tashkent 

 and Samarcand forces through Bokhara to Merv 

 and Sarakhs in return, without having any desert 

 to traverse, and the communications along the 

 new frontier would be perfect. As the cost 

 would be only £160,000, no doubt whatever is 

 entertained in Russia that Annenkoff's proposal 

 will be accepted. 



Dr. Aristides Brezina of Vienna has pub- 

 lished a catalogue of the fine collection of meteor- 

 ites in the Hofkabinet. The richest collections 

 of meteorites are those of the museums of London, 

 Vienna, Paris, and Calcutta. On May 1, 1885, the 

 Vienna collection contained representations of 358 

 genuine falls. Dr. Brezina accompanies his cata- 

 logue by a valuable essay on the origin and classi- 

 fication of meteorites, and by a map of the world 

 showing the localities in which the Vienna speci- 

 mens have been found. 



— The Revue sud-americaine of Dec. 30 an- 

 nounces the organization of a new scientific 

 society in Paris under the name, ' Academie de 

 l'Amerique latine.' The academy will be divided 

 into four sections, as follows : social and political ; 

 historical and literary ; geographical and ethno- 

 graphical ; economical, commercial, and financial. 

 It will be devoted solely to the Latin nations of 

 America, and the membership will be unlimited. 

 It will publish a bulletin in the French, Spanish, 

 and Portuguese languages. 



— Extended researches by F. Emich (Central- 

 blatt ffir agrik. chemie) show that the purification 

 of natural waters is effected almost wholly by 

 organic agencies; the chemical action of ozone, 

 peroxide of hydrogen, and the oxidation from the 

 air, exerting but a feeble influence. This was 

 proved by experiments made upon water in which 

 the germs had been destroyed by boiling. 



