Nov. 25, 1875J 



NATURE 



17 



and including the names of Peter von Lercb, Victor von Rosen, 

 and Daniel Chvloson. MM. Gregorieff and Larch are ready to 

 receive objects intended for exhibition. 



At a meeting of the Fellows of the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, held on Monday, the 22nd inst, the following were 

 elected office-bearers for the session 1875-76 : — President, Sir 

 William Thomson, LL.D. Vice-Presidents : Rev. W. Lind- 

 say Alexander, D.D., the Right Rev. Bishop Cotterill, David 

 Milne Home, LL.D., Prof. Kelland, Lord Neaves, David 

 Stevenson, C.E. Secretary, Prof, H. Balfour. Secretaries to 

 ordinaiy meetings : Professors Tait and Turner. Treasurer, 

 David Smith. Librarian, Prof. Maclagan. Members of Council : 

 Alexander Buchan, J. Matthews Duncan, M.D., Prof. George 

 Forbes, Andrew Fleming, M.D., Prof. Geikie, Sir Alexander 

 Grant-, Thomas Harvey, LL.D., John G. M'Kendrick, M.D., 

 Arthur Mitchell, M.D., Charles Morehead, M.D., Ramsay H. 

 Traquair, M.D., Robert Wyld, LL.D. 



The session of the Poitiers Meteorological Congress was 

 opened on the 1 8th inst. M. Leverrier was present. The future 

 Association is to be composed of sixteen departments : Loire, 

 Loire et Cher, Loiret, Indre et Loire, Maine et Loire, Loire 

 Inferieure, Vendee, Charente Inferieure, Deux Sevres, Charente, 

 Haute- Vienni% Vienne, Indre, Sarthe, Correze, and Creuze. The 

 Gironde, which is to become the centre of another branch of the 

 Association, sent three delegates. The proceedings are to be 

 published, but the sittings were not public. 



It is oflBcially announced that it is the purpose of the U. S. 

 Government to make a complete and representative collection of 

 the mineral products of the United States, which shall illustrate 

 the mineral resources of the country and its mining and metal- 

 lurgical progress at the forthcoming Inttmational Exhibition to 

 be held in Philadelphia. 



I.v consequence of the time at the Manchester meeting of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute being insufficient to allow of the reading 

 and discussion of several papers that were upon the programme, 

 a supplementary general meeting is being he'd in London to-day 

 in the rooms of the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 

 Besides discussions^ on papers read at Manchester, Mr. G. J. 

 Snelus will read a paper on firec'.ay and other refractory mate- 

 rials ; Mr, William Hackney on the manufacture of anthracite 

 coke in South Wales ; Mr. C. J. Homer on the North Stafford- 

 shire Coalfield, with the ironstones contained therein. Sugges- 

 tions will be submitted to this meeting for introducing such 

 modifications in the rules and regulations as will in futvire admit 

 of dealing fully with the various subjects that may be brought 

 before each meeting of the Institute. 



At its last silting the French Geographical Society broached 

 a scheme for inducing the several French Railway Companies to 

 place at each station a map of the vicinity, with indications of the 

 most notable historical or economical facts connected with the 

 district. It appears that ibis is the universal practice on Bra- 

 zilian railway lines. 



A THIRD and cheaper edition of the translation of Dr. F. A. 

 Ponchet's work, " The Universe," published by Messrs, Blackie 

 and Sons, has been issued. We reviewed the work in our first 

 volume (p. 259), when we expressed our belief that it would do 

 much to foster a love of pure science in the ) oung. This cheaper 

 edition, though a few illustrations and notes have been omitted, 

 is stiU a handsome and beautiful work, well adapted for a present 

 to boy or girL 



It is expected that the buildings for the Yarmouth Aquarium 

 will be completed by the 1st of June, 1876. Mr. Saville Kent 

 has been appointed naturalist and manager of the aquarium. 



Among recent additions^to the Manchester Aquarium are nine 

 examples of the Sterlet {Accipenser ruthemis) from St. Petersburg, 



a species that has hitherto, in this country, been on public ezhi> 

 bition in the living state at Brighton only. The fine Sturgeon 

 obtained from Colwyn Bay for the Manchester tanks some six 

 months since is still doing well. 



It is said that the French National' Library is to be opened 

 every evening from 8 to 10. It is an important innovation 

 which has been tried with success at the library of the Conserva- 

 toire des Arts et Metiers, and has existed for years at the 

 Bibliotheque St. Geiievieve, in the Quartier Latin, for the use of 

 students. 



Experiments have been tried with success for using locomo- 

 tive engines on Paris tramways. 



The International Medical Congress, which this year met at 

 Brussels, will hold its next meeting at Geneva, in September 

 1877. 



The Italian Expedition for exploring the interior of Africa 

 will leave in January next, and will be absent three years. 



The members ol the Metropolitan Scientific Association 

 lately paid a visit to the recent excavations in the Surrey 

 Commercial Docks. One of the most important results of the 

 visit was the discovery of what, on further examination, will 

 doubtless prove to be a line of fault hitherto unsuspected, and if 

 further inquiry confirm the accuracy of the engineer's section, 

 another line of fault will have to be added to future geological 

 maps of this district. 



A movement has been set on foot at Philadelphia, the 

 Society of Arts y^^rwiz/ states, since Mr. Cunliffe Owen's visit 

 to that city, for the establishment of a Museum of S cience and 

 Art of a character similar to our own South Kensington 

 Museum. 



Mr. Serjeant Cox will publish, early in January, the first 

 volume of a treatise on "The Mechanism of Man," being a 

 reproductior, re-written, re»arranged, and greatly extended, of his 

 work entitled " What am I?" which has been for some months 

 out of print. 



A PAPER was read at the meeting of the Psychological Society 

 on Thursday week, by Mr. G. Harris, LL.D., F.S.A., vice- 

 president, on " Caligraphy as a test of Character," in which, after 

 remarking on the various modes in which character in each person 

 is exhibited, and on the infinite diversities of handwriting, he 

 adverted to the peculiarities which display character, and illus- 

 trated his theory by exhibiting a number of original autograph.', 

 including those of Napoleon I., Wellington, xCelson, Brougham, 

 Home Tooke, Southey, Cowper, Sheridan, Cobbett, Bulwer 

 Lytton, and Charles Dicken*', commenting on the contrast 

 between the writing of the two latter. A discussion followed, in 

 which Mr. Serjeant Cox, the President, Prof. Leone Levi, and 

 others took fart. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include an Arabian Baboon {Cynocepkalus hainadryas) 

 from Arabia, presented by Mis. M, A, Moore ; a Pampas Deer 

 (Cervus camfcslris) from Uruguay, presented ty Capt. Hairby; 

 a Herring Gull [Lattts argentatus) European, presented by Mr. 

 P. Gipps ; a Western Slender-billed Cockatoo {Licmetis pasinator) 

 from W. Australia, presented by Mr. W. J. Irving ; a Golden 

 Tench {Tinea vulgaris), European, presented by Mr. S, C, 

 Hincks ; a Capybara (H) drocharus capybara) from S. America, 

 two Central American Agoutis {Dasypr acta punctata), two Yellow- 

 winged Blue Creepers (Careia cyanea), two All-green Tanageis 

 {Chlorophonia viridts), two Naked- throated Bell Birds {Chasmo- 

 rhynchus nudicollis), two Yellow Hangnests {Cassicus persicus), a 

 Sulphury Tyrant (Pitangus iulphuratus), a Silver Blue Tanager 

 {Tanagra cana), a Blue Grosbeak {Guiraca cyama), five PUeated 

 Finches {Coryphospingus fileaius), from Brazil; five Darwm's 

 Pucras Pheasants {Fucras darwini), from China, deposited. 



