64 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan., 1S95. 



The Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh for 1894, 

 comprising the papers read during the 123rd Session of that Society, 

 commences with the address of the Vice-President, Mr. Kidston. It 

 is an elaborate and important paper " On the Various Divisions of 

 British Carboniferous Rocks as determined by their Fossil Flora." 

 Besides this address, there are nineteen communications dealing with 

 fossil fishes (Dr. Traquair), the Arachnid and Reptilian fauna of the 

 environs of Edinburgh (by Messrs. Evans and Carpenter), and other 

 subjects. A paper which will probably attract a large amount of 

 attention is one upon " Geographical Distribution of Disease in 

 Africa," by Dr. Felkin. It appears from the coloured map which 

 illustrates the paper that one of the best parts of Africa in which to 

 take up a permanent abode is in the middle of the Sahara ; for there 

 one has a choice of only six species of disease. The constant asso- 

 ciation between smallness of size and malignity of disposition is well 

 shown by the island of Mauritius, which occupies almost the opposite 

 extreme ; here you may catch or contract, if you are lucky, no less 

 than eleven distinct forms of disease. Some diseases are curiously 

 local ; to meet with " sleeping sickness," for instance, it is necessary 

 to frequent the West Coast. 



The fourth yearly volume (1894-95) of that useful list of Univer- 

 sities and Professors, Minerva, published at Strassburg, was announced 

 to appear towards the end of October. It contains a portrait of 

 Lord Kelvin. 



Mr. J. D. Paul has a short paper, illustrated by a map, on the 

 earthquake recorded at Leicester on August 4, in the Transactions 

 of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society (vol. iii., pt. 8). The 

 shock apparently affected an area of not less than two thousand square 

 miles. 



The Bombay Natural History Society has given on the outside wrapper 

 of the parts of the last volume of its journal the exact date of pub- 

 lication of each part. It has, moreover, repeated on the title page 

 of the whole volume the information, and thus rendered it impossible 

 for any error to occur in the future. This is most praiseworthy. The 

 society has a membership of some 750. 



Our esteemed contemporary, The Geological Magazine, is following 

 our example and changing publishers. It will in future be published 

 for Dr. Henry Woodward and his able colleagues by Messrs. Dulau 

 and Co., of Soho Square, London. We trust that the good fortune 

 which has befriended it in the past will not desert it in the times that 

 are coming. 



