March i6, 1876] 



NATURE 



\97 



travels in.Mongolia and the Land of the Tunguts is continued 

 ako. 



At Monday's meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, the 

 principal business was the reading of papers on the interior of 

 New Guinea, by Mr. Stone and Mr. Macfarlane. The 

 writers had found the coast district of New Guinea too barren 

 " even for the cultivation of the banana," but concurred in stating 

 that the country improved considerably as they travelled inland. 

 There they found great fertility, a kind, hospitable people, and 

 a country comparatively free from fever, whereas the coast was 

 barren, the people were morose and warlike, and the climate was 

 destructive of the health of Europeans. — No communication was 

 made respecting Lieut. Cameron, but it was understood that at 

 the last advices he was with his party at Loanda. 



The general staff of the German empire has published a 

 report of experiments made in Germany on ballooning at the 

 expense of the Imperial Government. The conclusions throw 

 no new light on the subject, but the German officers believe 

 that the mechanical direction of balloons is by no means an im- 

 possibility. They even suppose that the problem of ascending 

 or descending without using ballast or the valve, is very likely to 

 receive a speedy solution. They propose to the Government to 

 determine by means of experiments what is the best diameter for 

 the helix when it is applied to a balloan of a certain capacity. 

 They propose also to try the efficacy of wings for propeUing 

 balloons. They are not of the common opinion that the diameter 

 of balloons can be indefinitely enlarged. 



Miss Sheepshanks has presented to the Royal Astronomical 

 Society 200 volumes of works on Astronomy, some of them very 

 rare ; and Lord Lindsay has presented a large and valuable 

 collection of the late Mr. Carrington's MSS. on the subject of 

 sun-spots. 



At the last regular meeting of the Berlin Geographical 

 Society, Herr Kiefert read a paper on the African Expedition of 

 Lieut. Cameron, which he described as epoch-making, and 

 declared that the general results were the most important since 

 Livingstone. 



The Museum of Paris has lost the services of two of its most 

 eminent professors, M. Milne-Edwards in zoologj', and M. Dela- 

 fosse in mineralogy ; they have been placed on the retired list 

 on account of old age. M. Milne-Edwards has heen succeeded by 

 his own son, a promising naturalist, and M. Delafosse, by M. 

 Decloizeaux, a member of the Institute. 



On the 4th inst. the Berlin University held an extraordinary 

 meeting to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the day on which 

 Prof. Dove was received a doctor. An address was handed to 

 him by Professors Mommsen and Du Bois-Reymond. The 

 Minister of Public Instruction was present, and a magnificent 

 vase was presented to Dr. Dove on behalf of the Emperor of 

 Germany. In the evening a banquet took place at the English 

 HoteL Among those present were Prof. Helmholtz and [a 

 number of other German scientific notabilities. 



The Societe Fran^aise de Navigation Aerienne has 

 awarded a gold medal and diploma "for devotion to science," 

 to Mr. F. W. Brearey, honorary secretary to the Aeronautical 

 Society of Great Britain. 



The change of Ministry has been completed in France, and 

 M. Wallon is no longer the Minister of Public Instruction. The 

 learned gentleman left behind many warm sympathisers. His 

 successor appointed last Friday is Mr. Waddington, an English- 

 man by parentage, bom in France in 1828, naturalised a French- 

 man, and a member of the Senate, but a Protestant by religion, 

 and educated at Rugby and Cambridge. Great efforts are likely 

 to be made to secure for France competent representation at the 

 forthcoming Scientific Loan Exhibition. 



The Cambridge Museums and Lecture-rooms Syndicate report 

 the urgent necessity for increased accommodation in the depart- 

 ments of zoology, comparative anatomy, and physiology, and 

 recommend that steps be at once taken to supply the want. 

 They suggest the erection of a building on a site adjacent to the 

 present museums, to consist of three floors, with cellars under 

 the central portion. 



M. Harent, the director of a private institution, is now the 

 President of the Mimicipal Council of Paris. He has deposited 

 a formal proposition asking the Council to establish several 

 meteorological observatories for the analysis of rain, water, air, 

 electrical determinations, and ordinary barometer and tempe- 

 rature readings. All these establishments are to be modelled 

 after that ot Montsouris, but on a smaller scale. 



The Daily Bulletin of Weather Reports for March 1873 issued 

 by the chief signal officer of the War Department of the United 

 States, has been received. The publication gives on a reduced 

 scale the whole of the tri-daily weather maps for the month, each 

 map being accompanied with (i) the synopsis of the weather 

 conditions, and (2) probabilities of the weather during the next 

 twenty-four hours, drawn from these conditions, and stated on 

 each map at the time of its publication, together with (3) a 

 statement of the actual facts as they occurred with which the 

 "forecasts" of the office may be compared. This fearless and 

 straightforward course of exhibiting equally its successes and 

 its failures, is deliberately adopted by the office in order to 

 facilitate inquiry by scientific men, into the theories and causes 

 which have led to these successes and failures, from which in- 

 quiries the practical work of the office caimot fail to reap most 

 substantial benefit. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include 171 Sand Lizards {Lacerla agilis) from Italy, 

 presented by Mr. H. Negretti ; two Forster's Milvagos {Milvago 

 aiistralis) from the Falkland Isles, presented by Lord Lilford ; a 

 Great Frigate Bird [Frigata aqutla) from America, three Black- 

 backed Geese (Sarcidiornis melanota) from India, a Gull-billed 

 Tern (Slerna an°lica), European, a Crested Hangnest {Ostinops 

 cristatus), a Cayenne Lapwing ( Vanellus cayennensis) from South 

 America, an Ogilby's Rat Kangaroo {Hyfsipryinniis ogilbyi), a 

 Vulpine Phalanger {Phalangista vulpinci) from Australia, pur- 

 chased ; a Jackal Buzzard (Buteojacal) from Africa, deposited ; 

 a Yellow-footed Rock Kangaroo {Petrogale xanthopus). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, Feb. 3. — On Formulas of Verification in the 

 Partition of Numbers, by J. W. L. Glaisher, M. A., F.R.S. 



Feb. 17. — "Researches upon the Specific Volumes of 

 Liquids." By T. E. Thorpe, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of 

 Chemistry in the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds. 



II. On the Specific Volumes of certain similarly-comtituted 

 Inorganic Chlorides. 



The results of the observations made by Pierre and Kopp 

 upon the boiling-points, specific gravities, and thermal expansi- 

 bilities of the trichlorides and tribromides of phosphorus, arsenic, 

 and antimony, have led Kopp to suppose that the specific 

 volumes of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony, in their liquid 

 combinations, may be identical. The same conclusion has been 

 drawn with respect to tin, titanium, and silicon from Pierre's 

 observations upon the tetrachlorides of these elements. 



The common value of P, As, and Sb would appear to be 

 about 27, that of Si, Ti, and Sn about 35. But on examining 

 the details of the observations, it becomes evident that this con- 

 clusion is not strictly borne out by the results j the numbers 

 obtained for the individual members of the group differ in many 

 cases considerably from the common value, the divtrgences being 

 far wider than could arise from errors of observation, either in 

 the determination of the physical constants or in the estimation 



