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NATURE 



[yune 29, 1876 



on "Graham's Apparatus;" Monday, July 24, Mr. J. N. 

 Douglass, " The Lighthouses on the Great and Little Basses 

 Rocks, Ceylon." 



We would draw the attention of our readers to a leader in 

 yesterday's Daily News, in which a proposal is referred to for 

 obtaining a charter to incorporate Owens College, Manchester, 

 into an University. The subject is one of the greatest import- 

 ance, and now that France is following the lead of Germany in 

 the matter of University reform, we are glad to see some signs 

 that this country is also beginning to feel the necessity of exten- 

 sion and reformation in this direction. 



We read in the Scotsman of June 26 that " the prediction of 

 Capt. Saxby that a great storm might be expected last week had 

 a very prejudicial effect on the fishing of Anstruther, and the 

 fishermen suffered a loss of at least 500/. from their too ready 

 acceptance of the prophecy." The point to be wondered at is, 

 not that the fishermen of Anstruther, where a terrible loss of life 

 took place in November last, accepted the prediction and acted 

 upon it, but that such a prediction, when made, should be gravely 

 and generally circulated broadcast over the country by the news- 

 paper press, even though, in the present state of our knowledge, 

 two, or at the very utmost three days' forecast of a storm is all 

 that can be attempted, any more distant prediction being the 

 merest guess-work. 



At Monday's meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 a letter from General Stone (Cairo), on " The Circumnavi- 

 gation of the Lake Albert Nyanza," by M. Gessi, was read. 

 The points of importance in M. Gessi's paper were that 

 the Lake Albert Nyanza is one hundred and forty miles 

 long and fifty broad, and that in the east there is a river 

 flowing into the lake which is now confidently believed to be 

 one of the sources of the Nile. This, Sir R. Alcock said, was 

 a most important result of M. Gessi's expedition, as it made it 

 quite clear that the White Nile issued from the Lake Albert 

 Nyanza. Sir Samuel Baker had written to him (Sir R. Alcock) 

 endorsing the importance of M. Gessi's discoveries, which had 

 established a fact that for eighteen centuries had baffled all the 

 geographers of the world. The secretary read a letter which 

 had been forwarded to the Society by the Earl of Derby, giving 

 a summary of information which had reached her Majesty's go- 

 vernment in regard to the movements of Col. Gordon, who 

 expects that within a very short time the interior of Africa 

 will be sufficiently secure to allow both merchants and tra- 

 vellers to traverse the country in perfect safety. A paper 

 was read by Capt. Hay describing the district of Akem in 

 West Africa. He had found the country rich in minerals and 

 stwided with well-built towns. The men had a peculiar forma- 

 tion of the cheek-bones which closely resembled horns, the 

 chief executioner having this peculiarity so largely developed as 

 seriously to interfere with the performance of his official duties. 

 The women of the country were free from this deformity. 



During last week a young living male gorilla was seen at 

 Liverpool for a few days on its way to Hull, and thence to 

 Germany. It had been brought from the West Coast of Africa 

 by the German African Society's Expedition, and measured three 

 feet in height. This is the second specimen of a gorilla which has, 

 with certainty, been seen living in this country. The first during 

 its lifetime, twenty years ago, was mistaken for a chimpanzee. 



The Dublin Corporation have resolved to co-operate with 

 the Royal Dublin Society to invite the British Association to 

 that city in 1878. 



The Italian naturalist Signor Odoardo Beccari has arrived at 

 Genoa, from his fourth journey into New Guinea, and brings with 

 him a valuable collection of objects illustrating the natural history 

 of the country. 



Last week a deputation from Scotland waited upon the 

 Prime Minister to urge that grants should be made out of the 

 Imperial Exchequer to extend and improve the buildings of the 

 University of Edinburgh. They presented a memorial showing 

 that this was very much wanted ; that Scotland had already sub- 

 scribed 81,000/. out of a total of 261,000/. required ; that the 

 University conferred benefits upon the whole country, and on 

 that ground they asked for Imperial funds. Mr. Disraeli said 

 that the subject should occupy the thorough attention of her 

 Majesty's government, with, he was sure, a desire on their part 

 to meet any reasonable expectations. 



The Rev. A. H. Sayce has been appointed Deputy-Professor 

 of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford. Mr. 

 Max Miiller still holds the professorship although absent from 

 Oxford. 



Lieut. Weyprecht and Count Wilczek have proposed to the 

 Geographical Society of Paris to co-operate in the establishment 

 of meteorological stations under the polar circle. Nine stations 

 are to be located at Point Barrow, Uperniavik, mouth of Lena, 

 Novaya Zemlya lat. 76°, Spitzbergen lat. 80", Eastern Green- 

 land, and Finmark. The French Geographical Society is willing 

 to lend its assistance, but very likely will insist upon postponing 

 the establishment of these observatories till 1878, when it is 

 expected news from the English Arctic Expedition will have 

 been received, and advantage may be taken of any facts thus 

 elicited. 



Probably few of our readers are aware that at the rooms of 

 the Horticultural Society, at South Kensington, exists a valuable 

 botanical and horticultural library, free alike to Fellows and 

 non-Fellows of the Society. This is known as the Lindley 

 Library, having belonged to the late Dr. Lindley, and since it 

 was purchased by the Society it has received valuable additions. 

 From want of sufficient funds and proper accommodation it is 

 not, however, so useful as it might be ; and the Society will be 

 glad to receive additions of books, pamphlets, periodicals, &c. 

 Such gifts, we are sure, would be well bestowed. Communica- 

 tions should be addressed to Mr. W. B. Hemsley, librarian and 

 secretary to the trustees. 



The French geographical journal, L' Explorateur, for June 22, 

 has an article on the last cruise of the Challenger, in which 

 several of the illustrations in our Challenger number for June i, 

 are reproduced, including a very good woodcut copy of the steel 

 portrait of Sir C. Wyville Thomson. 



M. Leverrier has appointed a Commission to report on the 

 working of the great reflector, and to suggest improvements. 

 The investigations have been first directed on the mechanical 

 work, which is admirable, and a reward is to be proposed to be 

 given to M, Lichens, the maker. But the optical part is said 

 to admit of improvements in respect to the mirror, which does 

 not appear quite so good as was supposed at first. No pains 

 will be spared to approach perfection as far_as possible, as the 

 observatory is to be considered as an annexe of the International 

 Exhibition, and foreign astronomers will be admitted to use the 

 great reflector under certain regulations. 



A PHILOLOGICAL novelty in American literature is furnished 

 by the appearance in German of the annual report of the 

 Natural History Society of Wisconsin (Jahresbericht des natur- 

 historischen Vereins von Wisconsin) for 1876, this being, so far 

 as known to us, the only scientific serial published in that lan- 

 guage in America. Canada has one or two French scientific 

 journals, and Mexico several, of course published in Spanish. 



In the Repertorium fur Meteorologie, vol. v., No. 4, St. 

 Petersburg, Baron F. Wrangell has written a very suggestive 

 paper on the causes of the bora at Noworossisk, a local wind 

 characterised by peculiar violence and destructiveness to ship- 

 ping in that part of the north Caucasus coast. The author 



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