254 



NA TURE 



\y-uly II, 1889 



A Bill has been introduced into the House of Commons 

 which would, if it became law, prove a great boon to young 

 people in the rural districts. The object is to provide instruc- 

 tion in agricultural and horticultural subjects in public ele- 

 mentary schools, and to afford practical illustration in such 

 teaching. The Industrial Agricultural Education Bill, as it is 

 called, would not only secure for children in rural districts prac- 

 tical instruction on such subjects as fruit, flowers, and vegetable 

 growing, the proper method of keeping cattle, rotation of crops, 

 packing fruit for market, and other matters of equal importance : 

 it proposes, further, that the instruction in these branches shall 

 be carried on after the children leave school. To effect this it 

 is proposed to establish schools at which lessons would be given 

 in the evenings, and on Saturday afternoons. To induce parents 

 to keep their children at school for a longer period, or to send 

 them to the new schools, the promoters of the measure advocate 

 the provision of a small number of scholarships of the value of 

 thirty shillings per annum, and tenable for two years, for 

 children who have passed the fourth standard. They foresee, 

 also, that the ordinary appliance? of elementary schools will not 

 be sufficient to secure comprehensive instruction in practical 

 agriculture, and they are bold enough to hope that a special 

 grant will be made by the Education Office or the Science 

 and Art Department for the expenses of such allotments, school 

 gardens, and buildings as may be necessary to make the 

 teaching thoroughly practical. The Bill is backed by Mr. 

 George Dixon, Mr. Henry Fowler, Sir John Lubbock, Mr. 

 Jesse Collings, Sir Bernhard Samuelson, Mr. Howell, Sir John 

 Kennaway, Mr. Robert Reid, and Major Rasch, 



Messrs. Trukner and Co. will publish, probably in October, 

 "An Account of the Aborigines of Tasmania, their Manners, 

 Customs, Wars, Hunting, Food, Morals, Language, Origin, and 

 General Characteristics," by Henry Ling Roth, assisted by E. 

 Marion Butler. The work will contain a chapter on the osteo- 

 logy, by Dr. J. G. Garson, and a preface will be contributed 

 by Dr. E. B. Tylor. Numerous autotype plate?, from original 

 drawings made by Edith May Roth, will illustrate the text. The 

 edition will be strictly limited to subscribers. 



The Delegates of the Clarendon Press will shortly issue Mr. 

 Oliver Aplin's "Birds of Oxfordshire"; the second volume 

 (treating of electro-dynamics) of Messrs. Watson and Burbury's 

 "Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism"; and a 

 new edition of the fourth volume (on the dynamics of material 

 systems) of Prof. Bartholomew Price's " Treatise on Infinite- 

 simal Calculus." 



In the new number of the Internationales Archiv fiir Ethno- 

 graphie (Band ii.. Heft 3) Mr. Felix Driessen gives an interest- 

 ing account, in English, of tie and dye work, manufactured at 

 Semarang, Java. The article is accompanied by a plate repre- 

 senting the manufacture in all its different stages. Mr. R. 

 Parkinson continues his excellent notes, in German, on the 

 ethnology of the Gilbert Islanders. The valuable German 

 paper, by Dr. F. von Luschan, on a Turkish " Schattenspiel," 

 is also continued. The number, like its predecessors, has many 

 notes on ethnographical museums, collections, and b^oks. 



The Department of Mines, Sydney, has issued the first 

 number of what promises to be a valuable publication — 

 Records of the Geological Survey of New South l-Vales. It opens 

 with "Notes on the Geology of the Barrier Ranges District and 

 Mount Browne and Tibooburra Gold Fields," by Mr. C. S. 

 Wilkinson, Messrs. T. W. E. David and R. Etheridge, Jun., 

 contribute an interesting report on the discovery of human 

 remains in the sand and pumice bed at Long Bay, near Botany. 

 There are other papers by the same writers, and by Mr. W. 

 Anderson, Mr. J. C. H. Mingaye, and Mr. H. W. Powell. 



Messrs. George Philip and Son have issued the third 

 volume of the well-known series, " Rustic Walking Tours in 

 the London Vicinity." It deals with the west-to-south district, 

 and contains a field-path map, a geographical description, forty- 

 five charts, with ample and plain directions, and an index. 



A little book called " Walks in Holland," edited by Mr. 

 Percy Lindley, has just been issued. It presents concisely 

 much information that may be of service to tourists. 



The other day the plough of a peasant in the island of 

 Gothland unearthed a valuable treasure, consisting of two large 

 spiral armlets, a buckle, and a long bar used in payment, all of 

 solid silver, together with nearly 400 silver coins. Some of the 

 coins were Anglo-Saxon, and bore the effigy of King Ethelred. 

 The others were German and Cufic coins. The "find " has been 

 purchased by the Slate. 



The richness of the cod fisheries this spring on the coast of 

 Finmarken has clearly shown that these fisheries are not in the 

 least affected by whales. The Government has voted a sum of 

 £SS'^ towards the cost of a Commission for dealing with the 

 much- needed protection of the whale. 



The preservation of the eider in Sweden is to be extended from 

 April 24 to May 31. Through strict protection these valuable 

 birds have increased greatly in recant years along the Baltic and 

 the Cattegat. 



Dr. Schvveinfurth has presented a valuable collection of 

 plants from Yemen to the Christiania Museum, 



The late Mr. Wilson, of Gothenburg, has left a legacy of 

 ;^55O0 to that city for the promotion of science, art, and 

 education. He has also left his valuable collections to the 

 Gothenburg Museum. A few years ago Mr. Wilson endowed 

 this institution with a similar sum. 



The Finnish naturalist. Dr. J. Kinnnen, has set out on a 

 voyage of scientific research to Nova Zembla and adjacent 

 parts. 



A new series of double oxalates of the rare metal rhodium 

 and the metals of the alkalies or alkaline earths are described by 

 M. Leidie in the July number of the Annales de Chimie et dc 

 Physique. The hydrate of rhodium sesquioxide, Rh2(0H)g, a 

 substance having the peculiar appearance of a black jelly, and 

 which is but slightly attacked by most acids, dissolves readily, 

 when recently precipitated, in a concentrated solution of oxalic 

 acid. On evaporation of this solution, containing presumably 

 rhodium oxalate, no crystalline oxalate is obtained, but only a 

 non-crystallizable transparent mass. If, however, this solution 

 is evaporated along with a solution of neutral oxalate of potassium, 

 sodium, or ammonium, on cooling beautiful garnet-red crystals 

 of a double oxalate are deposited, containing one molecule of the 

 oxalate of rhodium sesquioxide and three molecules of the alka- 

 line oxalate. The potassium salt, Rh2(Co04)3 , 3C2K2O4 . 9H2O, 

 separates from solution in red triclinic prisms, very soluble in 

 water. The largest crystals are obtained from a perfectly neutral 

 solution, and may be most readily prepared by saturating a boil- 

 ing solution of acid potassium oxalate with recently precipitated 

 hydrate of rhodium sesquioxide. It is an evidence of the 

 strength of the combination that the solution gives none of the 

 characteristic tests for rhodium, not being precipitated either by 

 potash or soda, and only partially by sulphuretted hydrogen. 

 The ammonium compound Rh2(C204)3. 3C2(NH4)204. gll.O is 

 isomorphous with the potassium salt, and crystallizes in smaller 

 red prisms. It is soluble in its own weight of warm water. On 

 the other hand, the sodium salt crystallizes with 12H0O, in red 

 prisms which are very eflilorescent. The salts containing the 



