Oct. 26, 1876] 



NA TURE 



581 



The following changes are proposed to be made in the con- 

 stitution of the Council of the London Mathematical Society for 

 the ensuing session: — Lord Ray] eigh to be president in succes- 

 sion to Prof. H. J. S. Smith, who becomes a vice-president, 

 Mr. C. W. Merrifield to be a vice-president in the room of Dr. 

 Hirst, who becomes an ordinary member of the Council. The 

 two gentlemen who have been selected to take the place of the 



I outgoing members, Dr. Sylvester and Mr. H. M. Taylor, are 



j Messrs. A. B. Kempe and J. J. Walker. 



: Mrs. Crace Calvert has given 700/. for the foundation of 



I a scholarship of 25/. per annum in chemistry, at Owens College, 



Manchester, in memory of her late husband, Dr. Crace 



Calvert, F.R.S. 



The vacant Natural Science Scholarship at Exeter College, 

 Oxfordj has been awarded to Mr. Joseph Baldwin Nias, com- 

 moner, of Exeter Coll?ge. The scholarship is of the annual 

 value of 80/. and tenable for four years during residence. 



The following College Lectures in the Natural Sciences v/ill 

 be given at Cambridge during Michaelmas Term, 1876 : — 

 Gonville and Caius College — On the Physiology of Digestion 

 and Absorption, by Dr. Bradbury ; On Volumetric Analysis, by 

 Mr. Apjohn. Christ's College — On Vegetable Physiology and 

 Histology, by Mr. Vines. St. John's College — On the Prin- 

 ciples of Qualitative Analysis, by Mr. Main ; Instruction in 

 Practical Chemistry will also be given ; On Petrology, by Mr. 

 Bonney ; On Palaeontology, by Mr. Bonney. Trinity College — 

 On Electricity, by Mr. Trotter ; an Elementary Course of Prac- 

 tical Morphology, by Mr. Balfour ; Practical Physiology and 

 Histology, by the Trinity Prselector in Physiology (Dr. Michael 

 Foster), at the New Museums. Sidney Sussex College — Ele- 

 mentary Course of Vegetable Morphology, by Mr. Hicks. 

 Downing College — On Chemistry, by Mr. Lewis ; On Com- 

 parative Anatomy and Physiology, by Mr. Saunders. 



The soundings taken in the British Channel at the expense 

 of the Submarine Railway Company with the steamer Ajax, 

 have b:en completed. Not less than 3,257 specimens have 

 been collected, and will be classified for the purpose of com- 

 piling a chart of the sea-bottom. On the i8th inst. the shaft 

 at Sangatte had reached the depth of 122 metres; the boring, 

 it is expected, will reach its termination, 130 metres, by the eud 

 of the month. 



A SUM of 1,500,000/. has been allotted for the construction of 

 the French Exhibition building of 1878. An artificial waterfall 

 will be arranged at the Trocadero. Water will be pumped out 

 of the Seine by colossal engines which will themselves be an 

 attractive part of the exhibition. The waterfall will be illumi- 

 nated every evening with coloured and electric lights. 



At the last meeting of the Dresden Society for Incineration, 

 " Urne," it was announced that at the Brussels Exhibition of 

 Hygienic and Life-saving Apparatus, the gold medal was 

 awarded to the Siemens system. It was also announced that for 

 the erection of an incinerating furnace in Saxe-Gotha, prepara- 

 tions for which have already been made, considerable contribu- 

 tions have been received. The agitation on behalf of incineration, 

 it was stated, is making slow but steady progress in other 

 countries. 



A NOTIFICATION has been published by the French Govern- 

 ment for the benefit of railway travellers, that the second and 

 third-class carriages will be warmed next winter. The com- 

 panies are at liberty to use any system they think best, but they 

 must all adopt some system. 



The usual autumn soiree of the Manchester Field Naturalists' 

 and Archaeologists' Society is this year to be held in the 

 Aquarium of that city, and is to comprise an exhibition which 



promises to be of a unique character. The special subject chosen 

 is "The Mountain Limestone," and it is intended to illustrate 

 every phase in the history of this formation, in an unusually 

 comprehensive and attractive manner. Collectors willing to add 

 to the completeness of the display, which it is intended to open 

 to the general public for some days subsequent to the soiree, 

 should communicate with Mr. Faraday, who is the Secretary to 

 the Society, at the Manchester Aquarium. 



The popular impression that fair hair and blue eyes are cha- 

 racteristic features of German people has been confirmed by a 

 recent census, although opinion among anthropologists has been 

 divided on the subject. On a certain day every school in Prussia 

 had to make a return of the black and blue and brown colour of 

 the children's eyes. After a short time the results of this anthro- 

 pological commission have been published, and they are, at all 

 events, curious, though perhaps not of much scientific value 

 The number of persons examined in Prussia amounted to 

 4,127,766. Out of that number, 4,070,923 were under fourteen 

 years of age. With regard to the colour of their eyes, 42*97 per 

 cent, had blue, 24 "3 1 per cent, brown eyes. With regard to the 

 colour of the hair, 72 per cent, had blonde, 26 per cent, brown, 

 and I "21 per cent, black hair. With regard to the colour of the 

 skin, Prussia has only 6*53 per cent, of brunette complexion. 

 In Bavaria the brunette complexion claims 15 per cent., the 

 black hair 5 per cent, the brown hair 41 per cent., the fair hair 

 54 per cent. ; and it is argued from this that the darker com- 

 plexion in Germany came from the South. The Report con- 

 tains a number of curious observations ; for instance, that nearly 

 one-third of the Jewish school-children are fair, which would cer- 

 tainly not be the impression left upon a casual spectator by the 

 ordinary run of Jewish population. 



The course of lectures at the Ecole Libre of Anthropology, 

 established by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris in one of their 

 buildings, is to be commenced on November 15. The saheme 

 we annoimced last year is an accompUshed fact. The lectures 

 will be open to the public free of charge. M. Paul Broca will 

 deliver lectures on anatomic anthropology ; M. Paul Topinard, 

 in biological anthropology, will lecture on the history of anthro- 

 pology, the general, physical, and physiological characteristics of 

 man, and on anthropometry ; M. Eugene Dally, jin ethnology, will 

 lecture on the origin and filiation of human races ; M. Gabriel 

 de Mortillet, Sub-Director of St. Germain Museum, on pre- 

 historic anthropology ; and M. Hovelacque on linguistic anthro- 

 pology. The lectures will be supplemented by demonstrations in 

 the museums and*excursions to prehistoric stations round Paris. 



At a public dinner given by the Anthropological Society of 

 Paris, a proposal of a singular nature, signed by MM. Hovelacque, 

 Dally, Mortillet, Broca, Topinard, and others, was circulated 

 for additional signatures. Each of these gentlemen promises to 

 write a wiU directing that his brain be sent to the Anthropo- 

 logical Society for inspection and dissection. It is thought that 

 by procuring the thinking organ of persons whose habits and 

 works are perfectly known, some light might be thrown on the 

 laws of physico-mental organisation. The scheme having been 

 published in several Parisian papers, has provoked a furious attack 

 from the Univers. 



We have received two valuable brochures by P. Kropotkin on 

 the Orography of Eastern Siberia, both being reprints from 

 vol. V. of the " Mem. Russ. Geog. Soc." The first, " General 

 Sketch of the Orography of Eastern Siberia," shows the main 

 conclusions arrived at by the author after many years' study of 

 the orography of Eastern Siberia and of the adjacent parts of 

 Mongolia and Manchooria. He points out that a large table- 

 land runs from the table-lands of Central Asia to Behring's Straits 

 in the shape of an elongated triangle, forming the back bone of 

 this pait of the continent, and consisting of two terraces, a higher 



