Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/222

 remove tUeir iin»t valuable goods, and reach oiien ground before the arrival of the ihuck.

— A recent Isiue of La Nature l.Iaii. 3, ISM), de- scribing an eartliquake wbicli occurred in tLe valley of the Durance iu south -aaatern France at eleven p.U, on Nov. 27, IS84, uutlces and iUtislnites this curious phenonieiioii.

" The roof of a chalet ut Sointe Catherine wus sud- denly traosformed into a vibrating plate, and was broken in Beveral eqiil-disiant places. These injuries could not be attributed la the fall of bricks from Mic chimneys. The slates were dislodged, and nut broken; and the esposed portions of the wood-work, Tar from being in the vertical line from the chimneys, were found at precisely equal distances from each other. Moreover, the outside chiinneyi have not loai .1 single brick, and yet the roof Is as much Injured In these two places as In the others."

���The chalet referred to Is I'epresented in the accom- psnyingilliistrftlion as a brick building with sloping roof, divided by a central projecting gable, and sur- mounted by a row of six chimneys, each rapped with n large flat stone. The end chimneys are uninjured; but the capstones of the tour middle chimneys have been more or less moved from their places, and one lias 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 aegmcnla of a stationary vibration set up In the roof; Its nonnat period of vibration,

��— yatiire stales that fresh shocks of earthquake occurred on Jan. 27 and 28 in the hot-spring district of southern Styrla. 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 Setlf.

— Thfl Rev. Mr. Doane writes from Ponape, Caro- line Islands. In OcIol>er, 1SS4. of the arrival, in i^Tge r|uantiiJee, of pumiee-drKt ejected by Krakatoa a year liefore. It is a boon to the natives, who crush the pumice, and fertlllie the arid coral sand of the low atolls with it.

— The telephone is to be Introduced into the Kongo region by the International African assoclHlioii.

��— Capi. Scopiuloh, of the Austriui brig UaO leports having experienced terrific earthquake shod on Uie 22d of December, 1884, in the vicinity of d Azores. The weather was very fltie at the time, w: a light easterly breeate.

— The committee on tliought-tranaference. of tl American society for psychical research, has issued • circular requesting the co-operation of all persons interested in investigating the subject; that it, ir ascertaining whether "a vivid impresaiou or a di» tinct Idea in one mind can be communicaleil r< another mind without the Intervening help of tilt recognized organs of sensntion." It is the intention of the committee to make experiments upon personi supposed Ui have the faculty of ' mind- reading.' The committee also desires to collect stjkllsllcs u lu experiments of uniform character, but made by a large numl>er of observers, simitar to those made bf Charles Hichet, and described in Science (vol. t. 132). Precise directions for making eadi series of experiments are appended to this circuiar. li tering on this inquiry, the committee wish I undersi4Jod as expressing no opinion, on one ur the other, in regard to the reality of the suppoeed thought-transference. I'hey simply seek to Intlitntr a thorough and entirely unbiassed InvestigatioD the class of pheuoroena known under the name of ' miiid-readlng,' 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 U> the secretary. Mr. N. D, C. Hodges, 19 BralUo Street, Cambridge, Mass.

— In their report on underground circuits, the coin- nilltee of examiners of the Philadelphia electrical exhibition call attention to the desirabilily, in the present tentative condition of our knowledge of un- derground wires, of all conduits built for such pur- pose l>elng so constructed as to he easily adaptable to II number of systems. In regard to condacting 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 PeUrinann'ii millheilunifat for this year appears under the edilursblp of Dr. A. iSupan, well known for bU writings on matters of physical geograpby. The articles are chiefly con- cerned with explorations and general descriptions; but continued attention is promised to physical geog- raphy as well, anil the current bibliography that closes the number includes mention and abstract of several pa^iers of this character. Most of these ab- stracts are by Dr. Supan hiuiselF, while the monthly review of exploration is by Dr. WIchmann.

— The foundatioLi of a chair of hygiene at tho University of Berlin is an accomplished fact. Be- sides the professorship, a laboratory for hygienic re- search is to be Instituted.

��— The Italian expio undertake another six i central Africa.

��er. bignnr Franzoi, intend* to r seven yean' expedition into

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