metal coatings of the band by touching the centre of the charging rod. And for the rest, all that need now be said of the apparatus (this is not all that has to be said, but what remains has to do with a totally different set of experiments, and had better be reserved until the time comes for dealing with these experiments) is, that in order to allow of this charging and discharging, the metal surface at the back, instead of being insulated all round like the metal surface at the front of the band, is put in communication with the earth by bringing it down a little so as to allow it to be clipped by the metal clamp which fixes the band to the stand.

In the actual experiment with the band, all that has to

be done is first to charge and then to discharge, watching the index the while. It was anticipated that the band would elongate with the charge, and shorten with the discharge, and this is what happens in fact; for on charging, the index at once moves before the graduated arc in the way which shows that the band elongates in proportion to the charge, and on discharging it suddenly jumps back again to the position it occupied before the charging, these forward and backward movements being through 40° or 60°, or even over a still wider range, and not merely through one or two degrees. The band plainly elongates in proportion to the charge. The band as plainly shortens in proportion to the discharge, suddenly or gradually, as the

case may be, suddenly if the charge be augmented until | it overleaps the barriers of insulation, or if the discharge be brought about by pushing home the discharging-rod, gradually if the band be charged and then left to discharge itself slowly by keeping back the discharging-rod. And these results are constant, provided only before charging and discharging the weights attached to the band are so adjusted as to balance without overbalancing the elasticity of the band-a matter which is easily managed with but little patience and practice.

All, in fact, that was anticipated is fully borne out by the experiment. And thus it may be taken for granted that elongation of the muscular fibre may be caused by the attraction of two opposite charges of electricity

disposed leyden-jar-wise upon the two surfaces of the sheath of this fibre, and that contraction of this fibre may follow the discharge of these charges; for what is assumed to happen in this case is nothing more than what does actually happen with the band of india-rubber sheeting under perfectly analogous circumstances.

But if this be the way in which muscular fibre may be affected by its natural charge and discharge, how will it be affected by an artificial charge of the same kind? Will this artificial charge-the sheath being still a dielectricact like the natural charge, the charge imparted to one side of the sheath inducing an equivalent amount of the opposite charge on the other side? Will the artificial charge, presuming it to be larger in amount than the naturaĺ

charge, overrule the natural charge? Will the artificial charge, thus larger in amount than the natural, produce a greater degree of elongation in the muscular fibre than that which is natural to the fibre? Will the contraction following the discharge of this artificial charge be greater in amount than that which is natural to the fibre, because the elasticity of the muscle has freer play under these circumstances? These questions, and others also of a like nature, are suggested by the experiment upon the elastic band; for not only does the band elongate with the charge and shorten with the discharge, but the elongation and shortening are manifestly in proportion to the amount of the charge and discharge. Nor are these questions unanswerable. On the contrary, answers may be found in more ways than one-in the examination of the phenomena of electrotonus more particularly; and these answers are in no way ambiguous in their meaning. In electrotonus are strange modifications of muscular action. In electrotonus, too, as I have shown elsewhere,* are strange modifications of the electric condition of the parts, there being everywhere in the region of anelectrotonus a positive charge overflowing from the positive pole of the battery employed in the production of electrotonus, there being everywhere in the region of cathelectrotonus a negative charge overflowing from the negative pole of the same battery. In anelectrotonus there is a positive charge, not only present, but at work; in cathelectrotonus there is a negative charge, not only present, but at work. At work certainly, for as I have shown, the movements of the needle of the galvanometer characteristic of electrotonus are caused by the movement, not of a voltaic current, but of these charges through the coil of the instrument, the movement of cathelectrotonus by the flow of the negative charge, that of anelectrotonus by the flow of the positive charge. At work also, as I have also shown, in modifying muscular action. At all events, the presence of a positive charge in anelectrotonus and of a negative charge in cathelectrotonus are facts, and therefore I am justified in looking to the phenomena of muscular action in the two electrotonic states with a view to find answers to the questions now under consideration. At the onset of the inquiry, however, a grave difficulty has to be coped with a difficulty as to facts, for the actual facts are not what they are believed to be. In a word, it is not true that the action of anelectrotonus upon muscular action is essentially different from that of cathelectrotonus. Differences there are no doubt, but not any that will prove to be of moment in the present place. It is a fact that muscular action is suspended, not in anelectrotonus only, but in cathelectrotonus as well as in anelectrotonus. It is a fact that muscular elongation is a phenomenon common to both electrotonic states. Nor are these the only points in the history of electrotonus which require to be looked into carefully. So that, before proceeding further in this matter, it is necessary to ascertain what are the facts which have here to be dealt with.

The true history of muscular action during electrotonus may be well seen in the gastrocnemius of a frog by means of certain experiments for the exhibition of which the apparatus already used in the experiment with the elastic band is furnished with certain parts which have yet to be described. These parts consist of a pillar and a platform resting upon it horizontally, the pillar rising from the side of the stand opposite to that occupied by the charging and discharging rods. The pillar has a telescope arrangement, by which its length may be altered, and a screw-collar, by which it may be fixed at any length. The platform consists of a four-sided metal floor, five inches in length by three in breadth, with a narrow and rather thick border of ebonite in which are two binding screws for holding electrodes upon each of its sides, with a long roller at one of its ends, and with a moveable gutta-percha cover of such a shape and size as to allow it to be slipped on * "Dynamics of Nerve and Muscle." Macmillan, 1870.

and off between the ebonite borders, and fixed when on by having its edges made to play under the hollowed-out inner margins of the borders. In the actual experiment what has to be done is to remove the elastic band and the weights attached to it-to fix the platform, so that it is a little behind and above the level of the driving-wheel, with the end to which the roller is attached turned towards this wheel to fix the wires from the battery and induction apparatus to the binding-screws on the platform, the wires from the battery being carried to the side on which the screws are farthest from the roller (the battery, I should have said, consists of four medium-sized Bunsen-cells, and the induction-apparatus is one in which the secondary coil may be slipped altogether away from the primary-a Du Bois-Reymond's inductorium, in fact),—to prepare a frog's limb by stripping off the skin and dissecting away all parts of the thigh except the sciatic nerve,-to remove the gutta-percha cover from the platform, and pin upon it the prepared limb with its heel close to one end, care being taken not to injure the nerve or muscle in doing this,to tie to the tendo-achillis the string which belongs to the weights,—to put back the gutta-percha cover into its place with the limb thus pinned and arranged upon it, the string attached to the tendo-achillis being brought out over the end which comes next to the roller,-to carry this string over the driving-wheel to the rod carrying the weights,and to adjust these weights so as to put the gastrocnemius gently on the stretch, and lastly, to draw out the nerve, and carry it first across the electrodes belonging to the induction-apparatus and then across those belonging to the battery, these electrodes, to allow of this, being made to point inwardly to a sufficient distance across the platform, two from one side, two from the other. In this way, when the circuits are closed (they are open at first) the nerve may be acted upon by voltaic and faradaic electricity as in an ordinary experiment in electrotonus. In this way, any change in the length of the gastrocnemius must tell upon the index, just as the changes in the length of the elastic band were made to tell, only in the contrary direction.

These arrangements being made, two experiments have to be tried, the one for exhibiting the action of anelectrotonus upon the gastrocnemius, the other for exhibiting that of cathelectrotonus, and each differing from the other only in the relative position of the voltaic poles, the positive pole being next to the insertion of the nerve into the muscle in analectrotonus, the negative pole being in this position in cathelectrotonus.

In the experiment for exhibiting the action of anelectrotonus upon the muscle-that with the positive pole in the position next to the insertion of the nerve into the muscle there are three distinct steps, the first taken before setting up the state of anelectrotonus, the two others after this time.

The first step, or that which is taken before the establishment of anelectrotonus, is to tetanise the muscle with faradaic currents only just strong enough to act upon the muscle at all in this way. In this case the circuit of the induction-apparatus is closed, but not that of the voltaic battery, and therefore the nerve is acted upon by faradaic first, the faradaic currents used are strong enough to currents before the establishment of anelectrotonus. At tetanise the muscle effectually; then these currents are weakened by drawing away the secondary coil from the primary until the tetanus comes to an end; last of all, the tetanus is brought back again to the very slightest degree by moving the secondary coil back again towards the primary coil, and leaving it at the point where the currents produced in it just begin to have a tetanising action. This is the first step in the experiment.

The second step consists in the establishment of anelectronus while the nerve is still being acted upon by

these feeble faradaic currents. Hitherto the circuit of the induction apparatus was closed, while that of the voltaic

battery was left open. Now the latter circuit is also closed, and with this result-that the index gives a sudden great jump in the direction showing contraction, and then, immediately moving in the opposite direction to that signifying contraction, takes up a position on the other side of zero-at 15° or 20°, it may be-a movement showing, not contraction, therefore, but elongation. Eliminating, as non-essential, the strong contraction which happens at the closing of the circuit-for this has to do, not with anelectrotonus, but with the extra-current which traverses the nerve between the poles at the closing of the voltaic circuit-what happens, therefore, on the establishment of anelectrotonus is, first, suspension of the tetanus caused by the feeble faradaic currents; and, secondly, elongation of muscle. This is the second step of the experiment, and

these the results.

The third step follows upon the second. Its object is to ascertain whether the tetanus may be made to return during anelectrotonus by slightly increasing the strength of the faradaic currents acting upon the nerve; and the way of arriving at this is to leave the voltaic circuit still closed, to go on moving the secondary coil of the induction apparatus nearer to the primary, and to stop the moment the faradaic currents acquire strength enough to call back any tetanus. And this is what happens-that after moving the secondary coil but a short distance towards the primary, the index shows, not only that the tetanus has reappeared, but that it has reappeared in greater force. Before the establishment of anelectrotonus, the tetanus caused by faradaic currents only just strong enough to tetanise the muscle carried the index to 20° or thereabouts; after the establishment, the tetanus caused by faradaic currents only just strong enough to exert a tetanising action moved the index to 40° or 60°. In a word, contraction may happen in anelectrotonus, and when it happens it is considerably increased in amount. This is the third step of the experiment, and this the result.

In the experiment for exhibiting the phenomena of cathelectrotonus-that in which the negative voltaic pole is placed next to the insertion of the nerve into the muscle -all the steps are the same, and so are the results. The setting up of cathelectrotonus suspends the tetanus caused by feeble faradaic currents, and causes elongation in the muscle. The tetanus brought back during the cathelectrotonus by currents only just strong enough to have a tetanising action is in increased force. The degree of elongation is the same as in anelectrotonus. The increase of contraction is the same as in anelectrotonus. The only difference, indeed, between the two experiments is this, that somewhat feebler faradaic currents serve to recall the tetanus in cathelectrotonus than those which were required to do this in anelectrotonus.

Nor are these facts at variance with those which are brought to light when the state of electrotonus is produced by a smaller amount of battery power-by a single element, for example. In this case it often happens (not always) that the tetanus caused by salt or very feeble faradaic currents is suspended by anelectrotonus, and intensified by cathelectrotonus. It seems as if there was an essential difference between this action of the two electrotonic states upon nerve and muscle, but after what has just been seen this is by no means a necessary conclusion. It has been seen that anelectrotonus has a greater power of suspending tetanus than cathelectrotonus, therefore tetanus may be suspended by anelectrotonus when it is not suspended by cathelectrotonus. It has been seen that during both anelectrotonus and cathelectrotonus contraction when it happens is greater than that which happens in the non-electrotonised state; and therefore, during cathelectrotonus, if tetanus be not suspended, it is likely to be intensified. This is all. The facts are in keeping with those which have gone before when they are properly looked into, and there is no ground in them

for supposing that there is an essential difference between the action of anelectrotonus and cathelectrotonus-no ground for supposing that the effects of using a small battery power in the production of electrotonus are in any way different from those which attend the use of a larger power of this kind. C. B. RADCLIFFE

CONJOINT MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS*

WE are able to open the new year with the satisfactory removed which impeded the action of the great medical announcement that the last difficulty has been examining incorporations of England in uniting to frame a conjoint scheme for a minimum examination, which will constitute, in fact, a single and uniform portal to the profession. All the committees of the bodies concerned have

signified their approval of the following scheme :—

In view of the legal difficulties which have been stated by the Society of Apothecaries to prevent that society taking part in the formation of an examining board in this division of the United Kingdom, it was resolved:

sion of the United Kingdom by the co-operation of the I. That a board of examiners be appointed in this diviRoyal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and of such other of the medical authorities in England, mentioned in Schedule (A) to the Medical Act, as may take part in its formation; it being understood that, liberty being left to such co-operating honorary distinctions and degrees, each of them will abmedical authorities to confer, as they think proper, their giving admission to the "Medical Register." stain from the exercise of its independent privilege of

II. That the Board be constituted of examiners, or of examiners and assessors appointed by the several cooperating medical authorities.

III. That examiners be appointed on the following subjects: Anatomy and physiology; chemistry; materia cine; surgery; medicine; midwifery; or on such subjects medica, medical botany, and pharmacy; forensic medias may be hereafter required.

IV. That no examiner hold office more than five successive years, and that no examiner who has continued in office for that period be eligible for re-election until after the expiration of one year.

V. That the examiners be appointed annually by the several co-operating medical authorities on the nomination of a committee, called herein "The Committee of Reference;" but no member of the Committee of Reference shall be eligible for nomination as an examiner.

VI. That a Committee of Reference, to consist of an equal number of representatives of medicine and surgery, be appointed as follows: One representative of medicine and one representative of surgery to be appointed by each of the Universities in England; four representatives of medicine to be appointed by the Royal College of Physicians of London; four representatives of surgery to be appointed by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

VII. That one-fourth of the Committee of Reference go out of office annually, and that, after the first four years, no retiring member be re-eligible until after the expiration of one year.

VIII. That the duties of the Committee of Reference be generally as follows: 1. To determine the number of examiners to be assigned to each subject of examination. 2. To nominate the examiners for appointment by the several co-operating medical authorities. 3. To arrange and superintend all matters relating to the examinations, in accordance with regulations approved by the co-opein relation to the examinations as they may think fit, or rating medical authorities. 4. To consider such questions such as shall be referred to them by any of the co-ope

* Reprinted from the British Medical Journal.

rating medical authorities, and to report their proceedings to all the said authorities.

IX. That there be two or more examinations on professional subjects, and that the fees of candidates be not less than thirty guineas to be paid in two or more payments.

X. That every matriculated student of an English university who shall have completed the curriculum of study required by his university, and shall have passed such an examination, or examinations, at his university as shall comprise the subjects of the primary examination, or examinations, conducted by the Board, be eligible for admission to the final examination; and that every candidate so admissible to examination be required to pay a fee of five guineas, but he shall not be thereby entitled to the license of the Royal College of Physicians of London, nor to the diploma of member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, without the payment of an additional fee of not less than twenty-five guineas.

XI. That every candidate who shall have passed the final examination conducted by the Board shall, subject to the by-laws of each licensing body, be entitled to receive the license of the Royal College of Physician of London, and the diploma of member of the Royal College of Sur geons of England.

This is signed by George Burrows, President of the Royal College of Physicians, and George Busk, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

This

Sir Roundell Palmer, Mr. Denman, and Mr. Bevis have given their opinion that this scheme can be legally carried into effect by means of by-laws to be adopted by the respective Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. opinion was presented at the meeting of the Joint Committee on the 3rd inst. The examiners in surgery will be chosen from among the examiners who have been appointed under the charters of the College of Surgeons, and the Court of Examiners will adopt the certificate of the new examining body.

Meetings are being held in Dublin with a view to the formation of a conjoint examining board for Ireland. So far, no insurmountable difficulty has arisen in the several matters which have come under the notice of the deputed representatives of the Universities and of the other licensing bodies, and it is hoped that the board, as proposed, will become an accomplished fact. A claim was put forward by the Universities that the first part of the professional examination conducted by the conjoint board should not be required of university students who had passed their examination on the same subjects; and that in their case the examination should be confined to the final one. To this, however, the other licensing bodies properly objected; but an offer has been made by the other corporations that the preliminary examination should be wholly conducted by examiners appointed by the Universities.

NOTES

THE celebrated ethnological collection of the late Dr. Gustavus Klemm, of Dresden, which had obtained a world-wide celebrity from its richness in illustrations of dress and ornaments, household utensils, furniture, warlike, fishing, and hunting implements, &c., extending from the earliest times down to the immediate present, has been purchased by subscription, and transferred to Leipsic, where it forms the nucleus of the new German Central Museum of Ethnology, and around which is to be grouped whatever additional material can be procured in illustration of the general plan. An earnest appeal is made by the officers and others interested in this enterprise to their countrymen and others in the United States for contributions. It will occupy the place in Germany of the great Archæological Museum of Copenhagen of that of Mr. Blackmore at Salisbury, in England;

of the Museum of St. Germain, near Paris, under direction of M. Mortillet; and of the Smithsonian and Peabody Museums in the United States.

THE Exhibition of Neolithic Instruments by the Society of Antiquaries at Somerset House will be re-opened to-morrow, and will finally close on Thursday, January 18. For tickets apply at the Society's apartments.

ON Saturday last, at an early hour in the morning, the female hippopotamus in the Zoological Society's gardens gave birth to a young one-being the second occasion on which this interesting occurrence has taken place. As in the former case, it has been found necessary to close the building in which the female is placed entirely, not even the keepers entering into it except when absolutely necessary, in consequence of the extreme savageness and jealousy exhibited by the fond mother. Some days must therefore elapse before the "little stranger" can be prepared to undergo the ordeal of public exhibition.

ANOTHER interesting addition just made to the Zoological Society's collection is a young specimen of the King Penguin (Apterodytes pennanti) from the Falkland Islands. For this remarkable bird, which is still in the down-plumage, the Society are indebted to the kind exertions of F. E. Cobb, Manager of the Falkland Islands Company, who has been for some time endeavouring to obtain living examples of this species for the Society. The King Penguin is placed in the great eastern aviary, along with a specimen of the Cape Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) which has been for some time under the Society's care.

WE have just received the fourth report of the Radcliffe Trustees from the Radcliffe Librarian, Dr. Henry W. Acland, including also a catalogue of the transactions of societies, periodicals, and memoirs, available for the use of professors and of students in the Library; a catalogue of books recommended to students in physical science by the museum professors; and the Regulations of the Library. The additions to the Library are made, as far as the annual grant of 500l. will allow, either on the judgment of the librarian as to the intrinsic value of a work, or on the advice of a professor, or upon the knowledge that students require it.

Ir is stated that the average yearly number of visitors at the South Kensington Museum during the last five years has been 905,084.

THE University Court of the University of Edinburgh, at a meeting held on Tuesday, Jan. 2, declined to give effect to the recommendation of the Senatus, that the regulations in reference to the medical education of women should be rescinded. The Court guarded itself against being understood to indicate any opinion as to the claim of women to proceed to graduation, or as to the powers of the University to confer on women degrees in the faculty of medicine.

THE Second Course of Cantor Lectures of the Society of Arts for the session will be delivered by the Rev. Arthur Rigg, M. A., on "Mechanism." The first lecture will be given on Monday evening, Feb. 5, at eight o'clock, and the remainder of the course will follow on the five succeeding Monday evenings.

AT the annual meeting of the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, Sir John Pakington, M. P., in the chair, it was stated that, during the past year, the following new subjects have been introduced into the curriculum of the Institution ::-Acoustics, Light and Heat, Practical Chemistry, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, and the Theory of Music.

THE authorities of the American Museum of Natural History, at the Central Park in New York, have set apart Monday and Tuesday especially for the use of those persons who may desire

to examine the specimens in the Museum for the purpose of special study. Notifications of this arrangement have been distributed to the principal learned societies throughout the country, inviting them to attend on these days.

DE LA RUE'S indelible diaries for 1872 are as usual beautifully printed and bound, with ample room for memoranda. We miss the astronomical article, but still the letter-press being curtailed is an advantage, the book being less weighty for the pocket. The desk diary is a most useful appendage to the writing table, containing, besides the almanack, tables, &c., extra pages for memoranda and accounts.

THE eighth Annual Report is issued of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club for 1870-71. The papers of which abstracts are printed in the Report are of varied interest, the subjects comprised including "The Geographical Distribution of Cyclones," "The Latest Fluctuations of the Sea Level on our own Coasts,' ""Ocean Currents and their Effect on Climate,' ," "Report of a Committee appointed to examine some Ancient Remains in the neighbourhood of Armoy, county Antrim," and numerous others. number of prizes are offered to be competed for during the session ending March 31, for the best herbarium, collections of fossils, recent Crustacea and Echinodermata, shells, insects, sponges, &c., and others.

A

PROF. HALFORD has received from Simla the thanks of the Government of India for his paper on "The Treatment of Snakebite by the Injection of Liquor Ammoniæ into the Veins." The Governor-General in Council has determined to have Dr. Halford's pamphlet reprinted for general distribution to medical officers in different parts of India. It appears to be placed beyond doubt that this treatment is by far the most efficacious yet discovered in cases of poisonous snake-bite.

In

The

CONDURANGO root, the reputed specific for cancer, is becoming a subject of speculation in Ecuador and the United States. Ecuador it has reached 177. a ton, but in New York it has been selling for fabulous prices, though its virtues are contested. Government of Ecuador has imposed an export duty. The Condurango root is now reported to have been discovered by Mr. Simmons in the neighbourhood of Santa Marta in Colombia or New Granada, and a small shipment has been made to the United States. It is not stated whether it has been tried for cancer in that country.

THE Chilian Government has sent the war steamer Chacabuco to survey the islands of Guaiatecas.

THE U.S. Government has directed a survey of the Bay of Limou, the Atlantic terminus of the new Costa Rica Railway, where a city is being laid out with a pier.

ANTHRACITE coal has been discovered in the district of San Miguel, five miles from the capital of Costa Rica in Central America. There are several seams of about 40 miles wide, and the coal has been proved to be of good quality. A railway is in progress in the neighbourhood. It may be remembered that

coal is also found in the State of Panama.

It is noted as remarkable that a spring of fresh water has been discovered near Mollendo in Peru.

THE pearl oysters are said to have disappeared this season from the Madras coast, as well as from that of Ceylon.

M. BERTILLON lately read before the Academy of Medicine in Paris a paper on the relative influence of marriage and celibacy, based on statistical returns derived from France, Belgium, and Holland. In France, taking the ten years 1857-66, he found that, in 1,000 persons aged from 25 to 30, 4 deaths occurred in the married, 10 ̊4 in the unmarried, and 22 in widowers; in females at the same age, the mortality among the married and unmarried was the same-9 per 1,000, while in widows it was 17. In persons

aged from 30 to 35, the mortality among men was, for the married, 11 per 1,000, for the unmarried, 5, and for widowers, 19 per 1,000; among women, for the married, 5, for the unmarried, 10, and for widows, 15 per 1,000. There appears to be a general agreement of these results of marriage in Belgium and Holland, as well as in France.

We are so accustomed to associate tattooing almost entirely with the natives of New Zealand and the Indians of North America, that it comes to us almost as a new fact to learn from a correspondent of the Field what a high standard the art of attooing has reached among the Japanese. There we find men who make it their business to tattoo others, and these "pro. fessors of tattooing" are artists of no mean power, "for no india. rubber or ink-eraser can possibly take out a false line once imprinted; and they most invariably in the ‘printing in' improve upon the drawings previously made." The bettoes or Japanese grooms will frequently have depicted on their skins, not only perfectly-drawn pictures of birds, reptiles, beasts and fishes, but also representations of whole scenes, often from some old legend or history. A very common device is the red-headed crane, the sacred bird of Japan, depicted standing on the back of a tortoise, and this is emblematic of woman's beauty treading down man's strength. These designs are pricked in by needles, and two or three colours are used.

JP.E.

Prof. Kengott, of Zurich, states that a hail-storm lasting five minutes occurred at eleven o'clock in the morning of August 20, 1871, the stones from which were found to possess a salty taste. Some of them weighed twelve grains. They were found to consist essentially of true salt, such as occurs in Northern Africa on the surface of the plains, mainly in hexahedric crystals or their fragments, of a white colour, with partly sharp and partly rounded grains and edges. None of the crystals were entirely perfect, but appeared as if they had been roughly developed on some surface. They had probably been taken up and brought over the Mediterranean from some part of Africa, just as sand is occasionally transported thence to the European continent and the Canaries by means of hurricanes. A still more remarkable phenomenon has been recently recorded by Prof. Eversmann, of Kasan—namely, the occurrence of hailstones, each containing a small crystal of sulphuret of iron. These crystals were probably weathered from some rocks in large quantity, and were then taken up from the surface of the ground by a storm, and when carried into the hailforming clouds served as a nucleus for the formation of hail

stones.

A PRACTICAL extension of the metalliferous region of Chile to the south is announced in the discovery of rich silver deposits in the southern province of Nuble. The place is called Cuesta del Caracol, and is between the Rivers Lota and Nuble, about fifty miles from San Carlos towards the east. The standard on assay is estimated at 100lb. of silver to the ton. Operations are already prepared on a large scale. The Lota district has hitherto only been known for its large trade in coal and fire-bricks.

THE Indian Government has taken measures for a survey of the Tenasserim tin mines and their present state of production, for which purpose it has despatched Mr. Mark Fryar, mining engineer, to that province.

IN the native State of Kolapore in the Bombay Presidency sheep suffered from a strange form of animal plague. This conBesides this sists of a swarm of unusually voracious leeches. the wolves were out, carrying off children, invalids, and the aged in the exposed villages.

A WHITE elephant having been discovered in our possessions in Tavoy, on the Malay Coast, the Buddhist sovereigns are extremely anxious to obtain such an important minister of religion.