Jan. 20, 1876] 



NATURE 



235 



brought into accordance with those adopted by the Minister of 

 Agriculture and Corifmerce ; that harmonious action be based 

 on the number, quality, and hours of the observations, a pre- 

 ference being given to those stations which from their position 

 will best meet the requirements of local and international 

 meteorology ; that the instruments and modes of observing be 

 strictly uniform ; that inspection of stations be made at least once 

 every two years, and that the reduction and publication of 

 meteorological results be remitted to a directive council com- 

 posed of meteorologists elected from the directors of the principal 

 observatories and m.eteorological institutes, whose decisions will 

 be carried out by a secretary and suitable staff. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academy of Jan. 10, General de 

 Nansouty submitted a report on the project of a physical obser- 

 vatory on the top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, Pyrenees. As 

 our readers know, a small hotel on the Col de Sencours has been 

 provisionally used for observa'ions since 1873, but amid great 

 difficulty, from avalanches, cold, &c. The Pic is 2,877 metres 

 high, and only 527 short of the highest, but is easily accessible. 



The Observatory on the Puy de Dome is being rapidly com- 

 pleted, and will be opened this year. A semaphoric system of 

 telegraphy will be used to keep the Observatory in constant com- 

 munication with Clermont, the chief town of the district, at the 

 foot of the mountain. 



The fourth part of the second series of Mr. William H. 

 Edwards' work on the Butterflies of North America has just 

 been pub'ished by Hard and Houghton, and contains five quarto 

 plates of butterflies, drawn with the utmost excellence by Miss 

 Peart. The forms illustrated are species of Argynnis, Grapia, 

 Alelitcca, and Papilio, most of them new species recently de- 

 scribed by Mr. Edwards himself. 



Ax addition to the list of American scientific journals has 

 been made in the form of a Botanical Bulletin, edited by Mr. 

 John M. Coulter, of Hanover, Indiana. At present it is a sheet 

 of four pages, appearing monthly, with the promise of increase 

 in size with increase in subscribers. It is in form and general 

 scope much like the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 



Dr. Hofsi.vnn of Berlin has been elected a foreign asso- 

 ciate of the Italian Society of Science in room of the late Sir 

 Charles Wheatstone. This Society was founded in 1782 ; the 

 Italian members are limited to forty, and at present the Society 

 has only twelve foreign associates, among whom are Sir George 

 Airy, Prof. Cayley, and Sir Edward Sabine. Its rules are nume- 

 rous, and somewhat stringent. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences at Monday's sitting nominated 

 Prof. Nordenskjild a Correspondant in the section of Geography 

 and Navigation. 



The Central Section, or governing body o f the Geographical 

 Society of Paris, has appointed as its president for 1876 M. 

 Malte-Brun, the son of the celebrated Danish geographer. 



The Geological Society of Paris has elected as its president 

 for 1876 M. Pellat, an amateur geologist, holding a high posi- 

 tion in the finance department of Government. 



The warlike habits of the Papuans and their implements of 

 warfare are described in a private letter recently addressed to 

 Dr. Hooker. The writer says that no man leaves his dwelling 

 for his bit of cultivation even without his powerful bamboo bow 

 and a few deadly poisoned arrows. These poisoned arrows are 

 only a few amongst a great number not poisoned, the former 

 being distinguished by elaborate carving and painting, probably 

 to prevent accident amongst themselves. They are each pointed 

 and barbed with human bone brought to almost needle-like sharp- 

 ness, most carefully and neatly finished ; they [are poisoned by 



plunging in a human corpse for several days. Poor Commodore 

 Goodenough and his men suffered from arrows so poisoned. It 

 is a sort of blood-poisoning that, like other kinds of inocu- 

 lation, does not develop itself for several days, the slightest 

 scratch being sufficient to render almost inevitable a horrible 

 death. The symptoms are accompanied by violent spasms like 

 tetanus, with consciousness until the last. 



Capt.\in Moresby's work on New Guinea and Polynesia will 

 be published shortly by Mr. John Murray. It will include dis- 

 coveries and surveys in New Guinea and the D'Entrecasteaux 

 Islands, a cruise in Polynesia, and visits to the pearl-shelling 

 stations in Torres Strait of H.M.S. Basilisk, and will be illus- 

 trated by a map and wood-cuts. It will be interesting to com- 

 pare this book of Captain Moresby's with Captain Lawson's 

 " New Guinea," noticed in Nature some time back. 



M. E. QuETELET has called attention to the cold experienced 

 in Brussels in December, 1875, when the temperature fell to 

 freezing everynight from 25th Nov.to6th Dec, falling on the 2nd 

 to iS^'S, which is lower than has occurred any time up to the 4th 

 December, during the last forty-two years. In thirteen out of the 

 forty-two years the temperature observations present a relation 

 somewhat analogous to those of 1S75. It is remarkable that 

 with this low temperature and a persistent E.N.E. wind, the 

 barometer has continued low and the air humid and constantly 

 cloudy. On the 7th December the temperature fell to 5®9. 



Prof. F. W. PuTNAsf, Dr. Packard's late colleague, the 

 Nation announces, has been appointed Civilian Assistant on the 

 U.S. Surveys west of the locth meridian conducted by Lieut. 

 G. \V. Wheeler, and is already occupied in preparing a report 

 on the abundant and very valuable archaeological and ethno- 

 logical material collected by the exploration in Arizona, New 

 Mexico, and California. The report will be profusely illustrated, 

 and the Nation ventures to predict, will be the beginning of our 

 scientific knowledge of the prehistoric civilisation of the above- 

 named regions. 



A CONVOCATION of the University of London was held on 

 Tuesday, at which, after a long discussion, a resolution was 

 passed affirming the desirability of obtaining a new charter, and 

 declaring that no such charter would be acceptable to convoca- 

 tion which did not enable the University to grant degrees to 

 women. 



The Ladies' Classes at University College, London, began on 

 Monday last the second term of their eighth session. There was 

 a slight decline in the number of students for the session 1S74-75, 

 but the first term of the session 1S75-76 showed a considerable 

 advance beyond the highest success hitherto attained. In the 

 Michaelmas term, 1874-75, the whole number of individual 

 students was 199; in the Michaelmas term, 1875-76, just 

 elapsed, the number of individual students was 265. The whole 

 number of tickets taken in Michaelmas term, 1874-75, was 

 257 ; in the same term of 1875-76 it was 367. 



I.v a paper on the Chalk in the Channel district read at the 

 Paris Academy on Monday, Prof. Hebert stated that he ex- 

 pected great obstacles to be met with in the attempt to bore a 

 Channel tunnel. 



It is announced that all communications and notifications in 

 connection with the next International Congress of Medical 

 Sciences, to be held at Geneva on Sept. 9, 1877, be sent to the 

 Committee before June r, 1876, the time when the Committee 

 will definitely settle the regulations and programme, and appoint 

 reporters. The present president is Prof. C. Vogt, and the 

 secretary Dr. T. L. Prevost. 



M. Adolphe Pictet, who died at Geneva on Dec. 20 last, 

 at the age of 76 years, was one of the most eminent writers on 



