Feb. 3, 1876] 



NATURE 



273 



the publication of Dr. Hartlaub's last work on this subject 

 (" Ornithologischer Beitrag zur Fauna Madagascars," Bremen, 

 1861), great additions have been made to our knowledge of 

 the ornithology of this wonderful island by the investigations of 

 Pollen, Van Dam, Grandidier, Crossley, and other naturalists. 



Dr. O. Finsch, of Bremen, and Alfred Brehm — both well- 

 known German naturalists — will accompany the scientific expe- 

 dition to the Obi (Northern Siberia), which is to start in March 

 next. 



The Museum of Bremen, founded by a private society of 

 merchants, and well known to ornithologists of all countries 

 from the rarity of many of the specimens and the excellent 

 manner in which they are mounted, will shortly become the pro- 

 perty of the City of Bremen. It is said that Dr. O. Finsch is 

 likely to be appointed its first director under the new regime. 

 We may add that no more eligible selection could be made. 



Nev\' Zealand papers just to hand report an interesting dis- 

 covery of moa bones in that colony farther north than any 

 have previously been found. No remains of the extinct bird 

 having been discovered north of the town of Auckland ; the moa 

 region was supposed to have lain altogether to the south of that 

 place. The advices now received, however, state that numerous 

 bones, representing the skeletons of fifteen moas, have been 

 found along the beach for many miles north of Whangarei 

 Heads, sixty miles to the north of Auckland. The discoverers 

 were Mr. George Thome, and Mr. Kirk, the Secretary of the 

 Auckland Institute. With the moa bones were discovered 

 several human skulls and a complete human skeleton in a sitting 

 posture (the position in which it was usual to bury Maoris) ; 

 also many large pebbles, such as the moa was in the habit of 

 swallowing with its food, a rude stone hatchet, and some chips 

 of obsidian. The spot where the remains were discovered was 

 at one time covered with vegetation, but this having been burned 

 by bush fires the ground had been covered by drifting sand, the 

 disturbance of which by the wind has exposed the bones. The 

 natives in the district had no knowledge whatever of the exist- 

 ence of any of the remains discovered, whose antiquity is believed 

 to be considerable. Further researches in the same locality may 

 possibly be productive of interesting results. 



A LETTER from M. Alluard, the director of the Puy de Dome 

 Observatory, has been published in the International Bulletin 

 of Jar». 29, intimating that the establishment is now in full 

 operation. M. Alluard has ascended the mountain for the pur- 

 pose of taking instruments to the observers on the top. The 

 elevation is about 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. It was 

 on the top of the Puy de Dome that, in 1647, Perier, the 

 brother-in-law of Pascal, verified the fact, discovered at Paris, 

 that pressure diminishes with the altitude. The first experi- 

 ments were made by Pascal himself on the top of St. Jacques la 

 Boucherie, whose height is about ninety feet. A statue of Pascal 

 was placed on the basement of the tower about 1862, when 

 occurred the second centenary of his death. The top of the Puy 

 de Dome is to be connected by a telegraphic wire with the 

 Clermont Acadeuiy of Sciences, so that observations may be 

 recorded daily and sent by telegram to every station in cor- 

 respondence with the International Service. 



At the Court of Common Council last week Sir Charles Reed 

 presented a resolution of the Committee for managing the 

 Gresham College Trusts, of which Committee Sir Charles is a 

 member, and Lord Selbome Chairman. Sir Charles gave a brief 

 history of the institution, which, as our readers may surmise, was a 

 record of decay and misappropriation. Sir Charles's motion, 

 which was agreed to, was that the Gresham Committee (City 

 side) be authorised to put themselves in communication with the 

 Charity Commissioners, with the view of effecting the objects 



contemplated. In 1867 the Gresham Committee was advised by 

 counsel that the only satisfactory solution of the difficulty would 

 be found in the agreement of the Corporation and the Mercers 

 Company to propound a scheme for the sanction of Parliament. 

 That agreement has now happily been arrived at. We hope 

 that Sir Charles's prediction will be realised, and that the result 

 of the deliberations will be a scheme which will cause the College 

 once more to represent the wishes of the founder in making it, 

 what he originally designed it to be, a college for the furtherance 

 and advancement of learning in London. 



Intelligence received at Lisbon last week announced that 

 Lieut Cameron was almost completely restored to health. Baron 

 Barth, the well-known German geographer, had arrived at Lisbon 

 en route for Angola. 



A REPORT by Drs. W. Elgar Buck and G. C. Franklin, on the 

 Epidemic Diarrhoea of 1875 ^^ Leicester, has been presented to 

 the Sanitary Committee of that borough and printed. After a 

 careful analysis of the whole facts, the authors show that Leicester 

 is not an unhealthy town as regards the adult population ; that 

 the excessive rate of its infantile mortality, which really regulates 

 the total mortality, is due to a " specific diarrhoea," eminently 

 fatal, which prevails in July, August, and September ; that such 

 conditions, as are often assigned as causes of this destroyer of 

 infant life, viz., early age or debility of parents, maternal neglect 

 and debility, non-suckling, and opium-poisoning of infants exist 

 in Leicester, as in other manufacturing towns, but have no appre- 

 ciable effect in the main question at issue ; and that the houses 

 in which the fatal cases occur are not in themselves insanitary as 

 regards size and number of rooms, water supply, ventilation and 

 space, house drainage, and closet accommodation. The disease 

 is not difhised equally among all classes of the community, the 

 wealthy classes being wholly exempt from it as regards fatal 

 results ; and it is not the most densely-peopled districts, nor the 

 poorest sections of the community in which the mortality is 

 greatest ; but the disease is most prevalent where the soil is 

 water-logged, where sewers are liable to be blocked up, and 

 where the houses have been built on und rained ground made up 

 of refuse from all parts. In those districts of the town where 

 these conditions exist in a less degree, the disease is less preva- 

 lent, and where they do not exist, the disease is almost wholly 

 unknown. Drs. Buck and Franklin recommend, for the miti- 

 gation of the disease, that the subsoil be efficiently drained 

 of its superfluous water, that a free outfall ba found for the 

 sewers, and that clay-pits or other excavations should not be 

 filled up with filthy ash-bin refuse and then built upon. We 

 hope that the authors of this suggestive Report will resume the 

 inquiry next summer with the view of modifying or confirming 

 the results they have arrived at, and of throwing further light on 

 the history of this terrible epidemic, which every year almost 

 assumes the magnitude of a pestilence among the infants of 

 Leicester. 



M. DE TOUCHIMBERT reports that in the district round 

 Poitiers, the sowing of the winter cereals has been remarkably 

 and very seriously interfered with, first by the drought which 

 prevailed up to the close of October, and then by continuous 

 rains for the first fortnight in November, followed by severe frosts 

 during the rest of the month. Heavy storms of wind followed 

 each other in succession on Nov. 9, 10, and 11, doing great 

 damage to houses, and uprooting and otherwise destroying trees. 

 Pneumonia and bronchitis have been peculiarly prevalent, owing 

 probably to these violent alternations of drought, great humidity, 

 and low temperature. 



M. Albert le Bleu, chief engineer of mines at Rodez, has 

 visited the Paris Observatory to consult regarding the organi- 

 sation of the Departmental Meteorological Commission, of which 



