July 13, 1876] 



NATURE 



^43 



Mr. W. S. Ward, of the United States Executive, is now 

 on a visit to England to make himself acquainted with the prin- 

 ciples and construction of the most important public aquaria in 

 this country with reference to the establishment of similar insti- 

 tutions on an extensive scale in New York, and other leading 

 American cities. 



Prof. H. G. Seeley has been appointed to the Professorship 

 of Geography in King's College, London. 



The Dutch Society of Sciences, Haarlem, has awarded the 

 Boerhaave Medal to Prof. W. Hofmeister, Professor of Botany 

 in the University of Lubingen. 



We are doing a good deal, says the Gardener^ Chronicle, 

 to bring scientific literature within the reach of the people, but 

 our French neighbours are certainly ahead of us in this respect. 

 This conviction is forced upon us by the recent purchase of a 

 Manual of Botany of sixty-two pages for the sum of 10 centimes 

 — a penny in English money ! This closely printed little work, 

 by one M. Anciaux, forms one of a series of similar brochures 

 which is issued by M. Ad. Rion under the title of "Les Bons 

 Livres." It contains chapters on vegetable anatomy and phy- 

 siology, on botanical geography, classification, and taxonomy, 

 and is certainly a marvel of cheapness. 



M. Cezanne, the young and promising member of the French 

 Chamber of Deputies for Hautes-Alpes has died of consumption. 

 M. Cezanne, the author of a valuable work on the physical 

 phenomena presented by waterfalls on mountains, was the 

 founder and president of the French Alpine Club. His loss will 

 be so much more heavily felt that the French Minister of Public 

 Instructio n is at present making great efforts to popularise the 

 new institution. An official circular, published almost on the 

 very day when M. Cezanne died, recommends the heads of the 

 several government schools in France to organise tourists' expe- 

 ditions during hot days for exploring the Alps and Pyrenees. 

 Railway companies are to issue special tickets at exceedingly 

 moderate rates. 



The Prefect of the Seine Department has created a fund of 

 11,000 francs for sending to Dieppe, the seaport nearest to 

 Paris, a number of pupils of the municipal free schools. Fifty 

 will be selected from each school, and are to be chosen according 

 to their merits. These tourist-laureates are to be boarded in the 

 Dieppe College, visit surrounding places, and receive instruction 

 in the natural curiosities or historical facts connected with the 

 localities. 



We observe from the Bulletin Mensuel of the Observatory of 

 Montsouris for May that the Administration of Paris on April 1 1 

 last decided that meteorological observations be made with 

 special refeience to health In different parts of the city, and 

 voted an annual grant of 12,000 francs to the Observatory, to 

 which the inquiry has been entrusted. It has been resolved that 

 the work shall embrace, in addition to the meteorological obser- 

 vations usually made, atmospheric electricity, and variations in the 

 composition of the air (see ante, p. 156). In the meantime observa- 

 tions and experiments are being conducted at Montsouris with the 

 view of arriving at simple practical methods of observing with 

 scientific precision the different variable elements contained in 

 the air, before extending the observations to the different quarters 

 of the city. This number of the Bulletin details some very in- 

 teresting results of elaborate observations made on the ozone, 

 carbonic acid, and organic matters of the air of Paris, illus- 

 trated with figures of some of the more interesting organisms. 



The interesting address by the senior vice-president, Mr. J. 

 Thackray Bunce, at the last annual meeting of the members of 

 the Birmingham Midland Institute, has been printed in a separate 

 form. Mr. Bunce contrasts the condition of Birmingham with 

 regard to education twenty-three years ago, when the Institute 

 was foimded, with its condition now. The contrast is very great 



indeed, and the Institute has no doubt done much to dispel the 

 darkness in the'midst of which it started. Mr. Bunce sketches 

 the progress of the Institute, which Is now In a most flourishing 

 condition, and rightly urges the members to renewed efforts to 

 make it increasingly useful. 



The following additions have been made to the Royal Aqua- 

 rium, Westminster, during the past week :— Picked Dogfish 

 (Acanthias vulgaris) ; Bass {Labrax lupus) ; Streaked Gurnards 

 ( Trigla lineata) ; Sapphirine Gurnards ( Trigla hirundo) ; Turbot 

 {Rhombus maximus) ; Greater Pipefish {Syngnathus acus) ; 

 Cornish Suckers (Lepidogaster cornubiensis) ; White Bream 

 {Abramis blicca) ; Pope or Ruff {Acerina vulgaris) ; Zoophytes 

 {Alcyonium digitatum). 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Great-headed Maleo (Megacephalon malco), 

 from Celebes ; a Bomean Fireback Pheasant (Euplocamus 

 nobilis) ; two Common Crowned Pigeons ( Goura coronata), from 

 New Guinea ; two Black-backed Geese {Sarcidiornis melanota), 

 from India (?) ; a Saddle-billed Stork {Xenorhynchus senegcUensis), 

 from West Africa, purchased. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 Anthropological Institute, June 13. — Col. A. Lane 

 Fox, F.R.S., president. In the chair.— Prof. Busk, F.R.S., 

 described a collection of crania of natives of the New Hebrides, 

 some of which had been sent to the president by Mrs. Goodenough, 

 and others to the Royal College of Surgeons, by Dr. Corrle, R.N. 

 Seven were from the Island of Mallicollo and three from that 

 of Vanlkoro. With respect to the former, he remarked that 

 they were of special Interest as being the first, so far as he was 

 aware, that had ever been brought to Europe from that locality, 

 and also from their extraordinary form, due to the artificial 

 depression of the forehead, a mode of deformation not hitherto 

 recorded among the Melanesian race of New Guinea and the 

 South Sea. The peculiar form of the head among the Malli- 

 coUese was noticed by Captain Cook and the two Forsters on the 

 occasion of the discovery of the Island In 1774. The skulls 

 from Vanikoro, on the other hand, represented the normal form of 

 the cranium in people of the same race. — A paper by Mr. Ranken 

 on the South Sea Islanders, was read by Mr. Brabrook. The 

 author proposed that the name Mahori should be adopted to 

 distinguish the light races of the Pacific from the Papuans or 

 blacks. He adduced evidence to show that the latter first occu- 

 pied a considerable number of the Islands, and that the lighter 

 race arrived subsequently from the west and formed a settlement 

 in Samoa, whence It is now well established, that they spread 

 in all directions, and, In some instances, mingled with the 

 Papuans. He mentioned several points in which the Mahoris 

 differ essentially from the Malays, who, however, appear to be 

 a cognate race. — A short account of a visit paid to New Guinea, 

 by M. d'Albertis, was communicated by Mr, Franks. — Mr. 

 Distant described some photographs of natives of the Nicobar 

 Islands. 



Geologists' Association, June 2. — Mr. Wm. Carruthers, 

 F.R.S., In the chair. — Notes on the geology of Lewlsham, by 

 Mr. H. J. Johnston Travis, F.G.S. The author, after briefly 

 alluding to that portion of the Upper Chalk which is exhibited 

 in the excavations, proceeded to describe the Thanet Sands, and 

 to compare this section with the neighbouring one at Charlton, 

 where, in the Thanet Sands, casts of Cytrina and the vertebra of 

 fish have recently been discovered. Referring to the well-known 

 green-coated flints about which there has been so much contro- 

 versy, he mentioned a circumstance which may be noted at the 

 fault near St. John's Station, Lewlsham. The Chalk and Thanet 

 Sands are there faulted against each other at an angle of 40°, but 

 the actual line of contact is now occupied by a band of flint. 

 This shows that the chalk has been dissolved away by acidulous 

 waters, following the fissure down to this band of flint, which 

 has resisted further action. Portions of the same flint, where yet 

 imbedded in the chalk, retain the usual white surface, whilst 

 those portions projecting into the sands are green-coated. The 

 author then Instituted a close comparison between the Woolwich 

 and Reading beds of the Lewlsham and Charlton sections 

 respectively. 



