ON Tin: PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. IX 



doubt can be entertained that the germ of the great discovery of La- 

 grange and Laplace on the stability of the solar system, is to be found 

 in the last and most remarkable work of Simpson. It is truly delight- 

 ful to contemplate such feats of genius, so scantily aided, in a hard- 

 working mechanic, patronized by none." 



The Thirty-fourth meeting of the German Association of Science 

 and Medicine, was held at Carlsruhe, September 17th, 1858, under 

 the presidency of Prof. Eisenlohr. Nearly twelve hundred members, 

 representing all the states of Europe, were present, and many papers 

 of great interest were offered. 



The " Societe Zoologique d' Acclamation," of France, still continues 

 in the full tide of successful experiment. A foreign correspondent 

 of Sillimans Journal enumerates the following as a part of the ser- 

 vices it has already rendered : 



In 1854, it purchased half of the only herd of yaks which had 

 come to Europe ; and now the yak, through its care, has become ac- 

 climated without difficulty, and has prospered. In 1855, it distrib- 

 uted nearly a million of bulbs of the yam (Dioscorea Batatas) now 

 the yam is cultivated at large over Europe, and it promises to rival 

 the potatoe, when through successive sowings it shall have lost its long 

 form. The Society has spread everywhere the Sorghum sugar cane, 

 (Holcus saccharatus), which already furnishes to the departments of 

 middle and southern France abundant forage of good quality, while 

 at the same time, through its saccharine juices, it promises to be as 

 valuable to the southern provinces of France as the beet to the north- 

 ern. It has procured young plants of the Loza, a species of Rham- 

 nus, from which the Chinese extract the fine green color called the 

 Kao. It has imported two herds of Angora goats, which reproduce 

 perfectly in Europe without manifesting any symptoms of degenerat- 

 ing. It has not only acclimated the silk worm of the Ricinus (Bom- 

 byx Cynthia, or Palma Christi silkworm, a native of India), which is 

 already in France to its twenty-fifth generation, but it has done more, 

 in succeeding in varying its nourishment, by substituting the leaf of 

 the very common Fuller's Teasel (Dipsacus Fullonum) for the Ricinus 

 (R. Europczus}, which is rare, and does not grow in our climate with- 

 out great care ; and it has almost succeeded in regulating the time of 

 hatching, so as to make the birth of the worms correspond with the 

 development of the leaves on which they are nourished. It has al- 

 ready nearly accomplished the propagation in the open air of a silk- 

 worm living on the oak. In has raised, in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 two new kinds of Chinese oaks. It has undertaken to grow the white 

 nettle of China, with which fabrics may be made more firm than those 

 of linen or the indigenous hemp. It has promoted the culture of the 

 oleaginous pea, excellent as food, and affording an abundant oil. It has 

 received in portable greenhouses the wax-tree and varnish-tree in 

 good condition, with the insects which frequent them. Finally, through 



