July II, 1889] 



NATURE 



253 



The number of working botanists in Portugal is so small that 

 it is with great satisfaction we are able to announce the appoint- 

 ment of Dr. G. von Lagerheim of Stockholm, recently of Freiburg- 

 i-B., as assistant in the botanical laboratory of the Polytechnic 

 School at Lisbon. 



It is stated that the Imperial Museum of Vienna has accepted 

 the eccentric conditions of the bequest of the late Prof. H. G. 

 Reichenbach, of Hamburg, according to which his extensive col- 

 lection of dried orchids and drawings of orchids shall be placed 

 in sealed packets in the Museum, and shall not be exhibited or 

 in any way used within twenty-five years of his death. 



The Ketv Bulletin for July consists of an excellent guide to 

 the botanical literature of the British Empire. The primary 

 object of the compilation is to supply useful information on the 

 literature of the systematic, economic, and geographical botany 

 of British Possessions, Dependencies, and Protectorates. The 

 compiler explains that Kew is often called upon to answer ques- 

 tions, on the shortest notice, concerning the vegetation of some 

 remote part of the world, and the best books to consult on the 

 subject. Such questions are not always easily answered, and 

 they frequently entail a considerable expenditure of time. The 

 intention is that the present guide shall supply what is wanted, 

 and everyone who may have occasion to use it will find that it 

 is admirably adapted to its purpose. 



Mr, Thomas Scott, of the Scientific Department of the 

 Scottish Fishery Board, on June 27, in the Moray Firth, suc- 

 cessfully fertilized the ova of the lemon sole {Pleuronectes micro- 

 ccphahis) with the milt of the turbot {Rhombus maximus). 

 Development proceeded rapidly for three days and a half, when 

 the ova were killed by dust getting into the water, and they 

 sank. At this period the embryo was well formed, development 

 was going on quickly, and hatching would probably have occurred 

 on the seventh or eighth day. 



Last week, the Rev. W. S. Green, Mr. W. de Vismes Kane, 

 and other zoologists, had a successful trawling expedition in the 

 Atlantic, off the Irish coast. They started from Queenstown, 

 in the Flying Fox, on Monday, July i, and returned on Sunday. 

 All the captures were divided and subdivided into different 

 classes, carefully preserved in spirits, and packed in the cases 

 which were used in the Challenger Expedition ; and they have 

 been forwarded to the Natural History Department of the British 

 Museum, for whose benefit the expedition was organized. 



Miss Maria Mitchell, well known as a writer on astro- 

 nomy, died recently in New York. She was the daughter of 

 William Mitchell, astronomer, and was born in Nantucket, 

 Massachusetts, on August I, 1818. In 1847 she made the dis- 

 covery of a comet, for which she received a gold medal from 

 the King of Denmark, and other distinctions. During a visit 

 to Europe, in 1858, she was the guest of Sir John Herschel 

 and Sir George B. Airy, and afterwards she visited Leverrier in 

 Paris and Humboldt in Berlin. In 1865 she was called to the 

 Professorship of Astronomy at Vassar College, which, with the 

 post of Director of the Observatory, she retained until January 

 1888, when she secured a long leave of absence. The degree of 

 LL.D. was conferred upon Miss Mitchell by Hanover College in 

 1852, and by Columbia College in 1887. She was a member of 

 various scientific Societies, and was the first woman elected to 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She contributed 

 numerous articles to scientific journals. 



The heat in Russia and other parts of Northern Europe has 

 been intense of late. The Central Observatory at St. Pe ersburg 

 has not recorded such a high temper.ature at the same time of the 

 year since 1774. 



A SHOCK of earthquake occurred at Guernsey on Monday 

 afternoon, about 2.30. It was not quite so violent as that ex- 

 perienced on May 30. The weather during the whole of the 

 morning was extremely sultry. 



On the evening of January 31 last, about 9 o'clock, the self- 

 recording barometer at the Deutsche Seewarte showed a sudden 

 dip of about 0*04 inch, with a corresponding jump upwards a few 

 minutes afterwards ; and in the course of a day or two it was 

 found that the barographs at other stations exhibited a similar 

 phenomenon. Although the disturbance cannot be compared in 

 any way to the air-wave caused by the Krakatab eruption, yet 

 the rapidity of its translation proved it to be a noteworthy 

 meteorological phenomenon, and its behaviour over Central 

 Europe is discussed in an article contributed to the Annalen der 

 Hydrographie und maritimen Metcorologie for June, by Dr. E. 

 Herrmann, of the Deutsche Seewarte. The disturbance is traced 

 from Keitum (lat. 54° 54'), where it occurred at 7h. 50m. p.m., 

 Berlin time, on January 31, to Pola (lat. 49° 42'), which it 

 reached at 4h. 38m. a.m. on February i, having travelled at the 

 rate of about 71 miles per hour. In an easterly and westerly 

 direction the disturbance seems to have been confined to narrow 

 limits. The barometer was high over Southern Europe (30'5 

 in.), with minima (28*7 in.) over Northern Finland, and be- 

 tween Iceland and Norway. There was no earthquake in Europe 

 at the time, and the cause of the phenomenon remains at present 

 unexplained. 



Pere Chevalier, S.J., Director of the Sikawei Meteoro- 

 logical Observatory, near Shanghai, has issued his monthly 

 Bulletin for August last. It is an unusually interesting number, 

 as it contains a full study, with diagrams, of the two typhoons 

 which were felt at Shanghai and in the south of China. These 

 elaborate studies of the typhoons of the China seas are invalu- 

 able, especially when supplemented by the labours of Dr. 

 Doberck, of Hong Kong ; of the Japan Observatory ; and of that 

 of Manilla, in the Philippine Islands. Pere Chevalier has a 

 number of charts showing the tracks of the storms. 



The Committee of the General Board of Studies of the Vic- 

 toria University of Manchester have issued their report on local 

 lectures during the past three sessions 1886-87 to 1888-89. 

 Twenty courses of local lectures have been delivered, and the 

 Committee state that they have every reason to be satisfied with 

 the results obtained so far. The subjects selected have been 

 very vaiied, ranging over many branches of literature and 

 science. The local Committees have been of very different con- 

 stitution, including Committees specially formed for the purpose 

 of the lectures. Literary and Philosophical Societies, mechanics' 

 institutes, and educational institutions of various grades ; and 

 the audiences, wniie mainly drawn from the middle classes, have 

 in some cases consisted entirely of working men. The attend- 

 ance at the lectures has been well maintained, averaging for all 

 courses about 130. 



In the forty third Annual Report of the Commissioners in 

 Lunacy, just issued, it is stated that there were, on New Year's 

 Day, 84,340 insane persons under restraint. Of these, 7970 were 

 of the private class, 75,632 were paupers, and 738 were criminals. 

 The Commissioners believe that during recent years medical men 

 have become increasingly unwilling to certify to the insanity of 

 persons requiring treatment, in consequence of the results of 

 recent litigation connected with this part of their duties. The 

 causes of insanity are set forth in a table covering 136,478 cases. 

 These are very diverse. Thus 9569 persons lost their reason 

 from domestic trouble, 8060 from adverse cicumstances, 8278 

 from over-work and worry, 3769 from religious excitement, and 

 i 18,290 from intemperance. The influence of heredity was 

 ascertained in 28,063 cases, and congenital defect in 5881. 



