2l8 



NATURE 



\7ulye, 1876 



above the sea level, about twenty miles in a straight line from 

 the Pacific. The corals are of modern aspect, although the 

 species are undescribed. The fact that there are extensive saline 

 basins at a height of even 7,000 feet on the coast of Peru would 

 seem to indicate that the submergence was at one time still 

 greater than that suggested. Indeed, eight species of Allor- 

 chestes, a salt-water genus of amphipod crustaceans found in 

 Lake Titicaca, would seem to indicate that this lake, 12,500 

 feet above the sea, must have been at one time at the sea-level. 



We have received Part II. of vol. ii. of the Transactions of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, The Society, 

 which has just completed its seventh year, has gradually been 

 increasing in numbers, and there are now 150 members, many of 

 whom are well known to the scienti6c world. The Society's 

 efforts to carry out the objects for which it was established have 

 been, on the whole, successful. Of the papers printed in extcnso, 

 a series of twenty letters forming a most interesting corre- 

 spondence between Gilbert White and Robert Marsham, is by 

 far the most important. This is rendered still more interestintr 

 by the valuable notes contributed by Mr. Harting and Prof. 

 Newton. Of the other original papers, we may mention the 

 Meteorological Report and the Ornithological Report, by Henry 

 Stephenson, F.L.S. (author of the "Birds of Norfolk"); also 

 the concluding portion of Mr. Geldart's list of the plants known 

 to occur in Norfolk. The latter forms a portion (the sixth) of 

 the Fauna and Flora of the County, which the Society is printing. 

 Among the occasional notes and observations some interesting 

 facts are recorded. 



Lieut. Mintzer, of the U.S. Navy, we learn from VExplora- 

 teur, is organising a scientific expedition to the Arctic Seas, at 

 Norwich, Connecticut. 



A very destructive earthquake was felt at Corinth (Greece) 

 on June 26, and another of the same date in Aastria. 



At the Loan Collection during the present week, twelve 

 demonstrations of apparatus were given on Monday, the same 

 number on Tuesday, and six on Wednesday ; four will be given 

 to-day, four to-morrow, and ten on Saturday. 



Two handsome works have just been published by Masson 

 of Paris — " Le Microscope, son Emploi et ses Applications," by 

 Dr. J. Pelletan, with 278 figures and four plates, and " Traite 

 d'Electricite Statique," by Prof. E. Mascart, two vols., with 298 

 figures. 



Petermann's Mitthcilungen for June contains a considerably 

 detailed account of the results of the discovery of Franz-Josef 

 Land by the Payer- Weyprecht Expedition, founded on the work 

 recently published at Vienna by Lieut. Payer. Accompanying 

 the paper is the first satisfactory map yet published of the newly- 

 discovered land, in which all the details of the sea and land 

 are shown, as well as all the names imposed by the leaders of 

 the expedition. Dr. Couto de Magalhaes' " Travels in Ara- 

 guaya " are concluded, and a brief synoptical summaiy is given 

 of Walker's new statistical atlas of the United States. 



The Lindley Library, to which we referred last week (p. 200), 

 does not belong to the Horticultural Society, nor was it bought 

 by it. It was purchased with part of the surplus of the pro- 

 ceeds of the International Horticultural Exhibition and Botani- 

 cal Congress held in London in 1866, and is vested in the hands 

 of sundry trustees, who will be grateful for any donation. By 

 permission of the Horticultural Society the library is deposited 

 in its rooms. 



The twenty-eighth annual meeting of the Somersetshire 

 Archaeological and Natural History Society will be held at Bath 

 on July 18, 19, and 20, under the presidency of Mr. Jerom 

 Murch. Several excursions have been arranged. 



The first aquarium erected in Scotland was opened at 

 Rothesay, in the island of Bute, last Thursday. I The situation of 



the aquarium is in every respect favourable, and there is a large 

 amount of tank accommodation, which has been arranged so 

 as to contain both salt and fresh-water fish. The fresh-water 

 tanks are perhaps the largest of the kind in the country, one of 

 them containing over 20,000 gallons of water. A seal-pond is 

 being constructed, and an eight-horse power engine sends the 

 fresh and salt water from the reservoirs below to the tanks 

 above. The reservoir for the former is capable of containing 

 90,000 gallons, while that for the latter has a capacity of 

 150,000 gallons. It is hoped that the aquarium will do good 

 service as a school for practical natural history. 



Various sanitary measures (according to Dr. Tholozan) have 

 recently been adopted by the Turkish and Persian Governments 

 with reference to the outbreak of plague, which commenced in 

 Mesopotamia in the early part of the year. Since the beginning 

 of March a sanitary cordon has been established on the north of 

 the invaded territory, on the most frequented route of Kurdistan 

 and Syria, between Tecrit and Kifri. On the south a quarantine 

 of fifteen days is obligatory since April i on all vessels sailing on 

 the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is at Kouma, at the confluence 

 of these rivers. The ports of the Persian Gulf are protected by 

 a quarantine which vessels from infected localities have to 

 undergo at the island of Kezzer, formed by junction of the Chotel 

 Aral and the Karoun. Since April 10 all communications by 

 land between Persia and Mesopotamia are subject to a quaran- 

 tine of fifteen days. For three years, it may be added, all pil- 

 grimages into the infected country, by Persian subjects, have 

 been interdicted. To fully comprehend this system of protection 

 it should be remembered that on the west and north-west, for an 

 extent of three degrees of latitude, no artificial barrier has been 

 or can beTestablished against the plague ; but there are, happily, 

 natural obstacles, which prove much more efficacious, the infected 

 region being there bounded by the deserts of Syria and Meso- 

 potamia. The greater rarity of communications there renders 

 restrictive measures, on the arriving caravans, easier. Judging 

 from past outbreaks of plague, it was anticipated that the present 

 would decline in June (after reaching its acmS in the end of 

 May), and disappear from Mesopotamia in July. But it may 

 send offshoots to Bussora, Bouchere, and Arabistan, and a still 

 greater danger is the introduction of germs of the plague into 

 the high plateaux of Anatolia, Kurdistan, and Persia. 



An interesting addition to the literature of insectivorous plants 

 is furnished by a reprint, by Casimir De Candolle, from the 

 Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, " Sar la Structure et 

 les Mouvements de Feuilles de Dioncea muscipula." Wiih regard 

 to the power of digestion, M. De Candolle comes to a conclu- 

 sion opposed to that of Darwin, that the absorption of animal 

 substances is not directly utilised by the leaves, and is not neces- 

 sary to the development of the plant. He considers their ana- 

 tomical structure favourable to the hypothesis that the movement 

 of the two valves of the leaf results from variations of turgidity 

 of the parenchyma of their upper surface. 



A SINGULAR and useful society is in the way of formation at 

 Paris. Seventy-two institutions of France have met in the 

 Hotel of the rue de Crenelle to organize a general topographi- 

 cal association. Each institution becoming a member engages 

 to prepare a topographical map of its commune, with roads, 

 streams, mountains, &c. As the number of institutions in France 

 exceeds 40,000, the number of registered adherents is veiy small 

 indeed ; but more are expected to join, especially if the Govern- 

 ment takes interest in the association. The scientific value of 

 such maps may not be great, but the result in the diffusion of 

 geographical methods and promotion of knowledge is unques- 

 tionable. , 



Capt. Roudaire has delivered before the Geographical Society 

 of Paris a lecture on the results of the survey of the Tunisian 



