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NATURE 



\_Nov. 4, 1875 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy- eight years, 

 of Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, F. R. S. I le was well known 

 for his successful explorations in Egypt, and his archajological 

 and geographical publications. In 1852 he was created hon. 

 D.C.L. of Oxford, was corresponding member of the R.I.A, of 

 Vienna and of the Royal Academy of Turin. 



Dr. Lorrain, one of the most popular professors of the Paris 

 Medical Faculty, died from apoplexy a few days ago. The 

 Minister of Public Instruction and all the professors of the 

 faculty were present at his funeral. Dr. Lorrain wrote many 

 excellent works on professional subjects, amongst which we may 

 notice " Diagnostic by Pulsation." 



The resignation of M. Wurtz has been tendered once more and 

 accepted by the French Minister of Public Instruction, and 

 M. Vulpian has been appointed to succeed him as Dean of the 

 School of Medicine of Paris. 



The Observatory of Toulouse has purchased a telescope of 

 eighty-five centimetres diameter, and five metres focal distance, 

 at a cost of 1,200/. M. Tisserand is head of the Toulouse 

 Observatory. 



Petermann's Mittheilungcn for November contains the fol- 

 lowing papers : —On Soleillet's and Laigeau's travels in the 

 Sahara and to Soudan, by Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs. The continua- 

 tion of Weyprecht's *' Pictures from the High North," in which 

 he describes the formation of the pack-ice, and gives some 

 forcible illustrations of ice-pressure. Under the head of " Most 

 Recent Travels in Australia," accounts are given of Forrest's 

 journey through W. Australia (1874), Lewis's explorations in 

 the north and east of Lake Eyre, with a map (1874-5), Ross's 

 journey in the S.W. of South Australia (1874), and Giles's 

 journey from Fowler Bay to Torrens Lake. A paper, with 

 map, by E. Behm, on the extension of the Egyptian power on 

 the Upper Nile, treats of the results obtained by Baker, Long, 

 Kemp, and Marno. 



In the Bulletin of the French Geographical Society for October 

 is an itinerary of a journey by the energetic Abbe Desgodins in 

 1873, from Yerkalo to Tse-Kou, both on the^ river Lan-Tsang- 

 Kang, in Eastern Tibet. It is accompanied by a map of part 

 of Eastern Tibet to the north of Burmah and Yunan, containing 

 the courses of many rivers, and the positions of a large number 

 of towns. There is also a paper, with map, by Colonel Long, 

 describing his journey in 1874-5 to the Victoria Nyanza, and 

 the Niam-Niam country. M. E. Boisse describes a visit which 

 he paid in 1874 to Samoa and a few other Pacific islands. 



Professors Nordenskjold, Lundstrom, and Stuxberg, who 

 took Itave of the Swedish Arctic Expedition at the mouth of 

 the Yenesei River on the 19th of August last, with the intention 

 of returning to Sweden via Siberia, arrived at Ekaterinburg on 

 October 29, and were to remain for four days. 



The report of the meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History 

 Society for October 15 contains a paper by Mr. F. C. S. Roper, 

 F.L.S., on the additions to the Fauna and Flora of Eastbourne 

 during 1875. 



The Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Haggerston Entomo- 

 logical Society will take place at the Society's Rooms, 10, 

 Brownlow Street, Dalston, on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 11 

 and 12, 1875, between the hours of 6 and 11 p.m. 



Fro.m the " Proceedings of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field 

 Club" for 1874-5, we find that the Society continues to 

 do a creditable amount of useful work. Ten field meetings 

 were held last summer, and from the way in which these are 

 conducted, the members are likely to derive much benefit from 

 them. The " Proceedings " contain an admirable address by the 

 President, the Rev. H. H. Higgins, well calculated to stimulate 



those who heard it to an earnest study of science. Mr. Higgins 

 has been presented by the Society with a handsome testimonial 

 in acknowledgment of his long and valuable services as pre- 

 sident. 



P'rom the Tenth ]\eport of the Quekett Microscopical Club 

 we learn that the number of members is 530, and that the Club 

 is__in all respects in a prosperous condition. 



Another part of "Figures'of Characteristic British Fossils 

 with Descriptive Remarks " has been issued. It will be recol- 

 lected that Part I. appeared in 1867, II. in 1869, and III. in 

 187 1. These three parts included from the Cambrian to the De- 

 vonian forming thirty plates. This new part (IV.) contains 

 plates 3 1 to 42, and includes "Devonian, Old Red Sandstone, 

 Carboniferous and Permian," completing the Palceozoic division. 

 In addition to the plates giving figures of fossils and the letter- 

 press description, there are descriptive remarks on groups of 

 fossils with woodcuts of recent and fossil forms for comparison. 



We have just received a copy of the report on deep-sea 

 dredging operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by J. F. 

 Whiteaves, dated Montreal, 1874. The ship used] was the 

 Government schooner J. H. Nickerson, of seventy tons. Four 

 cruises were made. In the first 14 casts of the dredge were made 

 in no to 220 fathoms, in the second 16 hauls in 20 to 70 

 fathoms, in the third 18 hauls, and the fourth 16, in neither of 

 which is the depth stated. A summary of the zoological results 

 is given, the determinations being mostly by Professors A. E. 

 Verrill and S.J. Smith. 



We would recommend to the notice of those of our readers 

 who are interested in the antiquities of our country, a third 

 revised edition of Mr. Thomas Wright's well-known work, 

 "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon" (Triibner). It con- 

 tains a vast amount of information on the pre-Christian condi- 

 tion of England. 



Among the subjects on which the Council of the Institute of 

 Civil Engineers invite communications and offer premiums is 

 "The Flow of Fluids, liquid and gaseous." 



From the "Report" for 1874 of the Cardiff Naturalists' 

 Societ)', established in 1867, we learn that it is increasing rapidly 

 in numbers and prosperity. During 1874 the Committee tried 

 the experiment of introducing sc'entific and other lectures, and 

 although monetarily they were a failure, in other respects they 

 were so satisfactory that the Committee recommended their con- 

 tinuance for another" year. A large proportion of lectures on 

 important scientific subjects ■ were given, and two field meetings 

 were held. The ' ' Report " contains a Meteorological Report 

 for each month of the year, by Mr, F. .G. Evans, F.M.S., and 

 also a table of rainfall observations in the Society's field. 



The following papers by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, C.E., 

 F.G. S., have been reprinted from the Proceedings of the Liver- 

 pool Geological Society: — "The Glacial and Post-glacial De- 

 posits of Garston and the surrounding District, with Remarks on 

 the Structure of the Boulder Clay ; " and " Speculations on the 

 probable Distribution of Land and Sea during the Deposition of 

 the Marine Boulder Clays and Sands." 



We have received an address by Prof. R. H. Thurston, C.E., 

 delivered to the graduating class of the Stevens Institute of 

 Technology (U.S.) It is entitled "The Mechanical Engineer, 

 his Preparation and his Work," and contains soms excellent 

 advice, useful not only to young engineers, but to all who have 

 been trained to other mechanical professions. The Stevens 

 Institute, though what we would call a technical college, affords 

 a good general scientific training, with a fair admixture of lite- 

 rary culture, and the object of Prof. Thurston's address is to 

 show that the more complete is the culture of an engineer, the 

 greater is likely to be his professional success. 



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