Aug, 3, 1876] 



NATURE 



301 



The Senate of the French Republic having rejected the law 

 proposed by the Government and adopted by the Legislative 

 Assembly for conferring honours on students, a mixed jury has 

 been appointed to give diplomas to the pupils of Catholic uni- 

 versities. This body will sit in the Salle Gerson, close to the 

 Sorbonne ; the Session will begin next week. The number of 

 candidates is very limited owing to the failure of the new 

 universities. 



Dr. B. W. Richardson's proposal for a " City of Health " 

 (the Times states), mooted by him in the autumn of last year, 

 is about to be tried practically. A site has been secured on the 

 coast of Sussex, where the sanitary city will be laid out and in 

 due time erected. Dr. Richardson has given his countenance 

 10 the scheme, and will supervise the sanitary arrangements, 

 while Mr. Frank E. Thicke will be responsible for the architec- 

 tural details. 



The Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association com- 

 menced on Tuesday at Sheffield, under the presidency of Dr. de 

 Bartolome of that town. 



M. UjFALVY has been entrusted by the French Minister of 

 Public Instruction with a scientific mission, having for its object 

 ethnographical, linguistic, and historical researches in Russia and 

 Central Asia. M. Ujfalvy proposes to set out early this month 

 for St. Petersburg; from thence he will go to Moscow, Nijni- 

 Novgorod, Kazan, and Irkutsk. He proposes also to de- 

 scend the Volga to the Caspian, and with permission of the 

 Russian authorities to penetrate into Turkestan and the Khanate 

 of Khokand, and as far as Kashgar, returning by, southern 

 Siberia. 



The fifth Annual Exhibition of Industrial Arts was opened, at 

 the Palais de ITndustrie, Paris, on August i. This exhibition 

 is remarkable for the large number of historical -pictures repre- 

 senting the appearance of Paris at different dates. Each year 

 the several schools of design established by the municipality in 

 different places hold a special exhibition. A great improve- 

 ment is said to have been noted this year. 



Some French departments are creating agricultural professor- 

 ships to be paid at the expense of the local budget. One of 

 these has been established by Vienne, one of the most advanced 

 departments in meteorological organisation. The professor 

 will be appointed by competition. He will have to teach the 

 pupils of the normal primary school and to deliver lectures at a 

 number of rural localities. The salary is to be 190/. irre- 

 spective of special allocations and travelling expenses. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Tigers {Felis tigris), two Indian Leopards 

 {^Felis pardus), an Indian Elephant {Elephas indicus), two Indian 

 Antelopes {Antilope cei-vicapra), two Horned Tragopans {CerU 

 ornis satyr a) from India, presented by H.R.H. the Prince of 

 Wales ; two Ringed-necked Parrakeets {Palceornis torquata) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Doxat ; an Anubis Baboon 

 {Cynocephahis anubis) from West Africa, two Australian Crows 

 {Corvus australii) from Australia, received in exchange; an Axis 

 Deer [Cervus axis), four Chilian Pintails {Dafila spinicauda), 

 four Common Teal {Querquedula crecca), two Crested Guinea 

 Fowls {Numida cristata), bred in the Gardens. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of the Chemical Society, May.— Mr. Francis Jones, 

 F R S.E, contributes a paper on stibine. Mr. Jones has mves- 

 tigated several methods of producing this gas, and the one which 

 commends itself to him as the most convenient is the foUowmg. 

 A strong solution of antimony in hydrochloric acid is allowed 

 to drop on a considerable bulk of zinc, either granulated or in 

 powder. The resulting gas is then purified by passing it through 



a very dilute solution of caustic soda, and subsequently dried 

 over calcium chloride and phosphoric anhydride.— Dr. Paul 

 von Hamel Roos gives a paper upon crystallised glycerine. 

 The solidification of this body seems to depend upon the entire 

 absence of water or any other impurity. Dr. Roos is carrying 

 on further investigations with this interesting compound. — 

 Messrs. Beckett and Wright contribute a paper on the action 

 of the organic acids and their anhydrides on the natural alka- 

 loids.— A paper on the use of platinum in the ultimate analysis 

 of carbon compounds, by Mr. Ferdinand Kopfer, of Owens 

 College, Manchester, is the last of the papers read before the 

 Society which appears in this number.— The usual extensive 

 collection of abstracts from papers in British and foreign jour- 

 nals occupies the remainder of this number. 



Journal of Mental Science, .July.— An article on Kalmuc 

 idiocy is contributed by Dr. John Eraser, with notes of cases by 

 Dr. Mitchell.— In an unsigned essay onj John Howard— curious 

 as an application of the necessitarian doctrine to the estimate of 

 character— there is a persistent attempt to depreciate the moral 

 grandeur of the great philanthropist, and to show that his labours 

 have borne much evil as well as good fruit. The essay is accom- 

 panied by notes written in an opposite spirit.— Dr. Claye Shaw 

 on the measurement of the palate in idiots and imbeciles, gives 

 evidence that there is no necessary connection between a high 

 palate and the degree of mental capacity of the individual, and 

 that it is difficult to see of what service a palatal investigation 

 can be in affording a clue to the mental faculties,— A very in- 

 teresting antiquarian and topographical account of the Bethlem 

 Royal Hospital from the year 1247 is given by Dr. Hack Tuke.— - 

 Dr. J. A. Campbell presents notes on the reparative power in 

 insanity. — The plea of insanity as set up in two cases of murder 

 is discussed by Dr. YcUowlees, and the difficulties and delicacies 

 of the subject are well brought out.— In an important corre- 

 spondence between Dr. Bucknill and Dr. Clouston on the rela- 

 tions of drink and insanity. Dr. Bucknill gives his views at 

 considerable length.— An Arab physician on insanity ; clinical 

 notes and cases ; four neat little reviews of books ; the psycho- 

 logical retrospect, English, German, American ; with notes and 

 news make up the number. 



Siizungsberichte der Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis 

 in Dresden, January to June, 1875.— We note, in the Botani- 

 cal Section, some observations by Prof. Nobbe on root for- 

 mation of seed plants. The r6le of roots being the conveyance 

 of water and mineral matters, and the amount of this dependr 

 ing, cceteris paribus, on the extent of surface of young root 

 fibres, he set himself to ascertain this extent in different 

 plants in relation to the surface of the green organs. Plants 

 of Scotch fir, spruce fir, and silver fir, were so grown, that 

 all the root fibres could be collected without loss. The first 

 year's root-product of the Scotch fir (about 12 inches long) 

 exceeded that of the spruce fir about six times, and that of the 

 silver fir about twelve times. The surfaces of the organs above 

 ground were, to those of the subterranean organs, in the 

 Scotch fir as 100 : 477 ; in the spruce fir as 100 : 168 ; 

 in the silver fir as 100 : 169. (The entire surface of the first 

 year's plants were respectively, in the order just given, 

 24,820, 5,690, and 3,903 sq. mm.) It is thus scenhow the Scotch 

 fir thrives on sterile, sandy ground, where spruce fir and silver 

 fir perish ; also the difficulty of transplanting the Scotch fir may 

 be understood, for a considerable portion of the root is apt to be 

 left in the ground, and the plant does not recover from the loss, 

 nor reproduce the fibres readily.— The geological department 

 contains descriptions of the geology and mineralogy of Vigsnocs 

 in Norway, and of the Kaiserstuhl in Breisgau, Baden. 



Jahrbuch der Kaiserlich-konighchen geologischen Reichsanstalt 

 PVicn.—ln the third and fourth parts of this valuable scientific 

 journal, published during the last six months of 1875, there are 

 a number of articles of very considerable scientific interest. 

 Among the papers on geology, that by Dr. Woldrich, on 

 the old gneiss formation of a part of the Bohmerwald may 

 be noticed as especially worthy of attention ; and the same 

 may be said of the memoir which Doelter and Hoemes con- 

 tribute on the subject of the origin of dolomites, bearuig 

 especial reference as it does to the remarkable and well-known 

 rocks of this class in the Southern Tyrol. — The excellent 

 palseontological papers by Dr. Hoemes and MM. Herbich and 

 Neumayr respectively, throw fresh light on those extensively 

 developed tertiary deposits of Eastern Europe, the study of which 

 is, in the hands of the Austrian and Hungarian geologists, 



