Dec. 9. 1875] 



NATURE 



1 1 



We are glad to see tbat the moveirent for organising a Uni- 

 versity College of Science and Literature in Bristol is so far 

 advanced that a meeting of the subscribers will be held in Bristol 

 on Saturday next, to authorise the committee to take the neces- 

 sary steps to incorporate the College. In a telling article in 

 Monday's Western Daily Press the need of such an educational 

 institution in Bristol, as wtll as in all our other industrial centres, 

 is forcibly shown. The increasing importance of scientific 

 knowledge even in our most trivial manufactures is well pointed 

 out ; only by thoroughly training the rising generation can we 

 hope to compete successfully with foreign manufacturers. It 

 is a hopeful sign to find the subject taken up by the newspaper 

 press in the spirit which animates the article referred to. 



The Vivisection Commissioners, having now received the evi- 

 dence of a large number of witnesses, will not meet again for 

 some weeks. They will then assemble to examine a few more 

 witnesses, after which it is announced they will at once proceed 

 to consider their report. 



The French Society of Aerial Navigation held its anniversary 

 meeting on the 3rd December, under the presidency of M. Paul 

 Bert. M. Bert delivered, before a full audience, an address 

 reviewuig all the scientific ascents executed during the year. 

 The Society, after hearing a lecture by M. Tis? andier, illustrated 

 with dissolving views, awarded him a prize. A similar reward 

 was given to the President of the London Aeronautical Society. 



The Cambridge Board of Natural Sciences Studies report that 

 the period of three years for which the University agreed to pay 

 100/. a year towards the expenses of Dr. Dohrn's Zoological 

 Station at Naples will expire next year, and they have had under 

 consideration the expediency of recommending a continuance of 

 the grant. For the sum of 100/. the University has hitherto had 

 the exceptional privilege of occupying two of the large working 

 tables. Dr. Dohm is unable to continue the offer of accommo- 

 dation on the same terms, but offers one or two tables of 75/. 

 per table. The Board, considering the claims upon the Worts' 

 Travelling Bachelors' Fund, do not think it right to charge that 

 fund with two tables at the increased price ; and, therefore, 

 recommend that one table be retained by the University for five 

 years at the rate of 75/. per annum. The Board have reason to 

 believe that very valuable work has been done by nominees of 

 the University at the station, and the Cambridge Museum en- 

 riched by important specimens procured from it. Mr. T. W. 

 Bridge, scholar of Trinity, and Mr. J. F. Bullar, of Trinity, have 

 been nominated by the Board of Natural Sciences Studies to 

 study at the Zoological Station, Naples, until July 1876. 



There will be an examination at Christ's College, Cambridge, 

 for scholarships and Exhibitions in Natural Science on April 4, 

 1876. The examination will be open to any one, and there is no 

 re'Ttriction as to age. This exr.mination will be held at the same 

 time as similar ones in connection with Sidney Sussex and 

 Emmanuel Colleges, the candidates of either of these colleges 

 being eligible at the other two in default of properly qualified 

 candidates at these colleges. 



Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs has written in the Popdar 

 Science Monthly an interesting account of one of the most 

 remarkable meteors of recent times, which lighted up the entire 

 State of Iowa and neighbouring parts of the States of Missouri, 

 Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, at 10.20 p.m., on Friday, 

 Feb. 12, 1875. This meteor is stated to have become visible at 

 a height of about 150 miles above Pleasantville, Iowa, to have 

 descended at an angle of about 45°, its course being at first a 

 little to E. of N., but deviating gradually more and more to E. 

 in a curved line. It divided into two in passing over the N. W. 

 township of Keokuk countrj', and finally exploded at a height of 

 ten miles over a point three miles S.W. of Norway, one of the 

 stations on the Chicago and North- Western Railway. It was the 



smailer portion of the meteor which produced the meteorite 

 shower in Iowa and Amana townships of Iowa County. Two 

 dollars a pound being given for all meteors collected, a Hrge 

 number have been gathered together varying in weight from 

 75 lbs. to 2 oz., and amounting in all to upwards of 500 lbs. A 

 woodcut is given, showing nine of the fragments, drawn to one- 

 seventh of their natural size, and a small map with the positions 

 in which the meteors have been found. A map, defining the 

 course of the meteor from all the observations made would have 

 been a useful addition to the paper. 



The Meteorological Bulletin of the Pyrenees-Orientales for the 

 year 1874, published under the auspices of the department and 

 the town of Perpignan, contains the following: — [l) PesumJ oi 

 the daily observations referring to agricultural meteorology and 

 the state of vegetation collected at Collioure daring 1873-74, by 

 M. Ch. Naudin, Member of the Academy of Sciences ; {2) 

 Returns of the state of the crops in Roussillon during the same 

 time, by M. Labau, Director of the school-farm of Germain- 

 ville ; (3) Notice of the thunderstorms observed in the depart- 

 ment of the Pyrenees- Orientales, by M. Tastn, Chief Engineer ; 



(4) Tables of the rainfall measured at the different stations of 

 the department during each month of the year, with a sketch of 

 the specialities of the rainfall of last year, by Dr. Fines ; and 



(5) Meteorological observations made at fifteen stations in the 

 department. The close union now being drawn in France 

 between meteorology on the one hand, and agriculture and hor- 

 ticulture on the other, as evinced by the Annual Report of the 

 Meteorological Commission of the Pyrenees-Orientales, as well as 

 by the subjects brought under special consideration at the Meteo- 

 rological Congress of Poitiers, speaks well for the future of 

 French meteorology. 



The Agricultural Students^ Gazette is a small quarterly publi- 

 cation, evidently issued under the auspices of the authorities of 

 the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and which is pro- 

 fessedly edited by students of that Institution. Such a publica- 

 tion ought to be eminently useful. It should aid in promoting 

 an enlightened system of agricultural education, which is one of 

 the great wants of the age. If well conducted, the journal cannot 

 fail to assist in making known the merits of the College and of 

 kindred institutions. It does not rival any existing periodical. 

 While edited by students, the chief articles are contributed by 

 professors. To No. 3 Prof. Church contributes a valuable paper 

 on the flesh-forming matter of root-crops. Among the other 

 contributions we would refer to a short but interesting paper 

 from the pen of Prof. McNab, on mould, and another on sewage 

 farming, written by one of the students, Mr. John D. Custance. 

 Prof. Wrightson contributes a paper on the improvement of 

 poor clay pastures, which has evidently been carelessly if not 

 thoughtlessly put together. This periodical merits our best 

 wishes. We see no reason why it should not in due time occupy 

 a leading place among our scientific agricultural journals. 



Prof. Kerner, of Innsbriick, has published an interest- 

 ing pamphlet on the Hybrid Primulacese of the Alps. Of these 

 he enumerates no less than twenty-five belonging to the genus 

 Primula, four to Androcace, and two to SoldaneUj ; some of 

 which have been treated as independent species, as that between 

 P. iubacaulis and officinalis under the name P. brevistyla, DC, 

 and that between P. stiperauriada and hirsuta under that of P. 

 fubescens, Jacq. By far the majority (twenty) of the Primula- 

 hybrids belong to a single section, Auriculastrum, the remainder 

 X.O Primulastrum. Of " derivative-hybrids " — that is, those re- 

 sulting from the crossing of a hybrid with one of its parent- 

 forms — he knows only one or two certain instances. In twj 

 separate reprints, "Floristische Notizen " and " Ueber einige 

 Pflanzen der Venetianer Alpen, " Prof. Kerner describes several 

 new plants of the Southern Alps. 



