March 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



375 



June 15, Prof. Garrod, on Reptiles ; Mr. J. W. Clark, on the 

 Beaver and its distribution ; June 19, Dr. Carpenter, on the 

 Zoological Station at Naples. 



We are in a position to state that M. Leverrier has not accepted 

 a seat in the Berlin Academy of Sciences, as was announced 

 recently in a London daily paper. He would have been present 

 at the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, to receive his 

 medal, had he not been prevented by ill-health. Although not 

 serious, the illness was sufficient to keep him at home for a pro- 

 tracted period. 



We have received the Atlas Miliorologique de t Observatoire 

 de Paris for the years 1872, 1873, ^'^'^ '^74, which has been 

 prepared from documents received and discussed by the De- 

 partmental Meteorological Commissions, the normal schools, the 

 observers, and others, and published with the concurrence of 

 the Scientific Association of France. This very valuable publi- 

 cation, giving in detail results of much of the important me- 

 teorological work now undertaken by France, together with 

 separate discussions on inquiries of great interest by such writers 

 as Pror. Raulin, MM. E. Belgrand, G. Leuioine, and Brault, 

 we shall take an early opportvmity of more fiilly bringing before 

 our readers. 



A DAILY weather report, by the Deutsche Seewarte, began 

 to be issued at Hamburg under the direction of Dr. G. Neu- 

 mayer, on ist January last, which shows on one map embracing 

 nearly the whole of Europe, the distribution of pressure, wind, 

 and cloud, and on another, temperature, rainfall, and sea dis- 

 turbance, along with a general review of the state of the weather 

 in the morning, the changes that have occurred since the after- 

 ( r.oon of the day before, and occasionally a forecast of the weather 

 to be expected. The reports are based on weather telegrams 

 received from twenty-seven places situated in different parts of 

 Germany, supplemented by reports from Great Britain, France, 

 Italy, Austria, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The 

 ort is a valuable addition to the daily weather maps of 

 rope, and considering the great ability of Dr. Neumayer and 

 coadjutors, the system will be most efficiently worked. 



We have received from the South Australian Institute, Ade- 

 ce, six valuable meteorological diagrams, representing the 

 lin facts of the rainfall at Adelaide from January 1839 to 

 -tober 1874, at Melbourne from January 1855 to July 1874, 

 i at Sydney from April 1840 to July 1874. The diagrams 

 : Adelaide are particularly full, showing the rainfall each day 

 the thirty-five years, the annual amounts, and the monthly 

 erages and extremes. 



The Central Committee for the participation of Germany in 



.e forthcoming Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus has up to the 



esent admitted 260 applicants, who will exhibit altogether 



300 instruments. The British Government has afforded every 



ility to the exhibitors, having sent specially-fitted carriages 



Berlin for the safe conveyance of instruments of great value. 



At a recent meeting of the Sedgwick Memorial Committee at 

 :.mbridge, the treasurer aimouEced that the fimd amounted to 

 11,500/. This sum is, however, insufficient for the purpose of 

 erectmg a Museum worthy as a building to commemorate the late 

 Professor, and it is hoped that additional subscriptions will still 

 be forthcoming. It is intended that the Museum should form 

 part of a group of buildings for Natural Science purposes. The 

 whole question is under the consideration of a Syndicate. 



At a meeting of the Senatus Academicus of Aberdeen Uni- 

 versity, held on Saturday, it was resolved to confer the degree of 

 LL.D. upon Mr. Charles Meldram, the Observatory, Port Louis, 

 Mauritius, and Mr. John Smith, Professor of Chemistry, Uni- 

 Tcrsity of Sydney, 



A CROWT)ED meeting was held by the Italian Geographical 

 Society on Tuesday morning in one of the large halls of the 

 CoUegio Romano for the purpose of taking leave of the Marchese 

 Antinori, Signor Chiarini, Professor of Geology, and Capt 

 Martini, composing the expedition sent out to Central Africa. 

 The President, Commendatore Correnti, ex-Minister of Public 

 Instruction, addressed the meeting. Among the many distin- 

 guished persons present were Prince Humbert, Honorary Presi- 

 dent, and General Menabrea, member of the Council of the 

 Society. In the evening a banquet was given to the members of 

 the expedition, and yesterday they were to embark at Naples 

 direct for Aden. 



The Times Berlin correspondent writes that Capt. Sosnovski, 

 the Russian traveller, who has just threaded his way from the 

 shores of China to the South Siberian firontier, has presented to 

 his Government an explicit report upon new caravan ro^ds to be 

 formed through Mongolia. 



M. Greard, the Director of Public Instruction of the City of 

 Paris, has just published his Reports, which contain a great nimiber 

 of interesting facts. In 1861, 48 children in each 100 were edu- 

 cated in the public schools of the city ; in 1872 the proportion 

 was 68 per cent. ; but out of the remaining 32 per cent, only 20 

 per cent, are uneducated, the other 12 being educated in their 

 families or in private institutions. The fact is all the more note- 

 worthy that in the department of the Seine or suburban Paris, 

 the number of schools and of pupils is diminishing. This is 

 attributed to the impoverishment and sufferings resulting from 

 the German and civil wars, which fell more heavily on the 

 suburbs than on Paris itself. 



M. Ansart, a captain in the French navy, has published, 

 under the title " Anemology," an interesting article on the for- 

 mation of winds, in the Revue Maritime et Coloniale for December. 

 The principal aim of the author is to prove that the electrical 

 attraction exerted on the clouds by the earth is an important 

 factor in the generation of winds ; the motions of the air being 

 thus not merely dynamical as is generally supposed. Capt. 

 Ansart is not the only meteorologist who has tried to take accotmt 

 of the electrical power of the earth. At the end of his essay he 

 quotes the opinion published by M. Keller, who explains by 

 attraction of the earth the production of waterspouts. He con- 

 cius in opinion with CapL Ansart that the matter of the clouds 

 under special circumstances is attracted by the n^ative electricity 

 of the earth being strongly positively electrified. The rotation 

 of a waterspout, according to Capt. Ansart, is caused by the 

 attraction of the earth not being equally exerted on the whole of 

 the surface of the cloud. 



The Augsburg Gazette states that the number of students 

 registered in Berlin, of German nationality, is 1,884, in Leipzig 

 2,575, and in Munich, 1,087. 



Earthquake shocks were felt in the province of Constantine, 

 Algeria, at Philippeville and Gigelly, two sea-ports, on the night 

 of Feb. 22-23. The exact times for Philippville were i and 

 1.30 A.M. ; the direction north-west to south-east. Another 

 motion was felt at Gigelly on the 23rd, at 4 o'clock in the after- 

 noon. M. Bulard, Director of the Observatory of Algiers, ex- 

 pected other shocks on the 4th or 5th of March, and has pub- 

 lished the prediction in theMoniteur de VAlgerie. 



Messrs. Henry S. King and Co., inform us that it was by 

 an inadvertence that Bernstein's " Five Senses of Man " was 

 advertised as ready ; it will not be out for at least a fortnight. 



We have just received the first number of the Italian Giornale 

 deV Museo d'lstruziotte edi Educazione, containing forty pages of 

 valuable matter connected with various departments of education. 

 The Museum of which this journal is the organ, was founded 



