3o6 



NATURE 



\yuly 25, 1889 



nine years old the eye is not strong enough for school work. 

 When they do begin to learn lessons, they "should have good 

 "light during their study hours, and should not be allowed to 

 study much by artificial light before the age of ten. Books 

 'printed in small type should never be allowed in school-rooms, 

 ■much less be read by insufficient light." 



In the new volume of the Transactions and Proceedings of 

 the -New Zealand Institute there is an instructive paper by Mr. 

 A. Reischek on the wandering albatross {Diomedea exulans). 

 Towards the end of January 1888, he had an opportunity of 

 ■watching this bird closely among the hills of one of the 

 Auckland Islands. Starting in search of some specimens, he 

 was lucky enough, after a good deal of climbing, to come to a 

 slope where a colony of albatrosses had established a breeding- 

 place. The birds were scattered about among the tussock-grass, 

 sitting on their nests, and from their white plumage could be 

 •easily distinguished from the vegetation at a great distance. Mr. 

 Reischek found that their nests are always placed on sloping 

 ground, and always on the most exposed side of the hill. The 

 nests are composed of earth and grass cemented together, and 

 are built in the form of a cone. They are usually about 2 feet 

 in diameter and about 18 inches high. Outside they are sur- 

 rounded by a shallow drain, intended to carry off the surface- 

 ■water. Within is placed a single egg. This is white, with a 

 few brown spots on the broad end, and measures about 5 "5 inches 

 in length by 3'i inches broad. In most cases he found the female 

 ■on the nest, the male bird standing close to her, and occasionally 

 feeding her. Sometimes the male relieved the female, but they 

 never both leave the nest until the young one is able to defend 

 itself against the skua gull, a rapacious bird which devours every 

 ■egg or nestling left unprotected. When Mr. Reischek ap- 

 proached an albatross's nest, the bird seldom left it, but set 

 up a croaking noise, clapping its mandibles together and biting 

 at the intruder. If it was turned off, and the egg taken, it re- 

 turned and sat on the nest as before. The eggs were quite fresh 

 on January 25, and good for eating when fried. 



A VOCABULARY of physical terms, styled "Butsurigaku Jut- 

 sugo Jisho," has been issued in Japan. It gives the authori- 

 tative Japanese equivalents of an important group of Western 

 scientific terms. In all, thirty-six Japanese gentlemen have 

 been engaged in its preparation for the past six years. The 

 Mathematical and Physical Society of Japan bears the expense 

 of publication. The book consists of four parts arranged 

 alphabetically under the four languages, Japanese, English, 

 French, and German, each part extending over ninety octavo 

 pages, and each page comprising from twenty to twenty-five 

 distinct terms expressed in the four languages. This work, on 

 which so much labour has been expended, can be purchased 

 for the moderate sum of a dollar and a half 



Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have issued a " Syllabus of 

 Modern Plane Geometry," by the A.I.G.T. The first few sections 

 •deal with harmonic ranges and pencils, the properties of the 

 triangle, and properties of the complete quadrilateral and 

 quadrangle; sections v., vi., and vii., with the properties of 

 -circles and geometrical maxima and minima ; sections viii. and 

 ix., with cross ratios, involution, and reciprocal polars and 

 projection. The various subjects are treated concisely, and the 

 work will be very useful to students. 



" Hampstead Hill," a work on the natural history, &c,, of 

 Hampstead, will shortly be published by Messrs. Roper and 

 Drowley. The contributors to the various sections include Prof. 

 J. L. Lobley, H. T. Wharton, Rev. Dr. Walker, and J. E. 

 Harting. The book will be illustrated by engravings of local 

 scenery. 



The second part of Charles Fahre's treatise on photography 

 has just been published (Gauthier-Villars, Paris). The subject 

 of lenses is continued in great detail, and it is not too much to say 

 that a more complete account has never been written. Dia- 

 phragms and instantaneous shutters are begun in this part. The 

 illustrations are excellent. 



The Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh has issued its Pro- 

 ceedings during the session 1887-88. The volume includes, 

 besides an opening address, by Prof Duns, Vice-Presdent, the 

 following papers :— An ornithological visit to the Ascrib Islands, 

 Loch Snizort, Skye, by John Swinburne ; on the structure of the 

 Graafian Follicle in Didelphys, by Frank E. Beddard ; notes on 

 Carboniferous Selachii, by Dr. R. H. Traquair, F. R. S. ; further 

 notes on Carboniferous .96','(zrM, by Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S. ; 

 notes on a visit to Fernando Noronha (with plate), by George 

 Ramage ; on an2w Eurypteridfrom the Upper Coal-measures of 

 Radslock, Somersetshire (with plate), by B. N. Peach ; synthetic 

 summary of the influence of the environment upon the organism, 

 by J- Arthur Thomson ; on the prevalence of Eurypterid remains 

 in the Carboniferous shales of Scotland, by James Bennie ; on 

 the fructification of two Coal-measure ferns (with plate), by Robert 

 Kidston ; on the fructification and affinities of Archaopteris hiber- 

 nica, Forbes, sp., by Robert Kidston; notes on the equipment 

 of the Research Laboratory of the Royal College of Physician^, 

 Edinburgh, by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead ; the summer birds of 

 Shetland, with notes on their distribution, nesting, and numbers, 

 by Harold Raeburn. 



The July number of the Board of Trade y^jwrwa/ describes, 

 from certain Austrian technical periodicals, the condition of 

 pharmacy in Bulgaria. Most of the departmental capitals, 

 towns of 9000 to 10,000 inhabitants, but including very often 

 an administrative area of 60,000 to 70,000 inhabitants, have 

 only one pharmacy each. These pharmacies might be supposed 

 to do a splendid trade, and they would do so but for the fact 

 that the illegal exercise of the craft, in spite of the stringency 

 of the laws which are intended to protect the legitimate pro- 

 fessors of the art, is almost openly practised throughout the 

 country by itinerant hawkers, quacks, and priests. The estab- 

 lishment of pharmacies is only allowed by special concession, 

 and they are subject to a Sanitary Council at Sophia composed 

 of several members, including a chemist and a veterinary surgeon. 

 Nominally there should be a pharmacy for every 8000 inhabit- 

 ants. Every Bulgarian citizen who has passed the necessary 

 examination is entitled to compete for a concession, but foreigners 

 are only allowed to do s") when they can show that they have 

 been qualified in their own country, and after having passed a 

 formal examination in Bulgaria. At least twice a year every 

 pharmacy is officially inspected by the authorities, and subjected 

 to a close examination, which also extends to the books, as there 

 is an official scale of charges for prescriptions which may not be 

 exceeded. The original of every prescription is kept by the 

 pharmacist, who gives his customer a copy stamped with his 

 name, and bearing the price charged, which price is also in- 

 scribed upon the original, and the same number given to both. 

 At present the Russian Pharmacopoeia is used in Bulgaria, but a 

 native one is in contemplation. There is no Pharmaceutical 

 Society or organization of any kind among pharmacists. A 

 Society which was started about five years ago expired after an 

 existence of three months. The formal examination which is 

 obligatory for foreigners desirous of establishing business in 

 Bulgaria embraces pharmacology, analysis, organic and inorganic 

 chemistry. The fee is very high, £\o, half of which is refunded 

 in case of failure. Every foreigner establishing business in 

 Bulgaria is required to sign a declaration placing him under the 

 Bulgarian Pharmacy Law, and to keep at least two apprentices 

 of Bulgarian nationality. The assistants are nearly all foreigners, 

 I They generally receive from £,z \os. to ;^3 per month indoors. 



