Sept. 12, 1889J 



NATURE 



479 



Bearing in mind the importance of the subject, and remem- 

 bering, as my colleagues and myself do, the difficulties we have 

 liad to encounter and those we have still before us, I am 

 strongly of opinion that the erection and maintenance of colleges 

 of science should not be left to the accidental liberality of the 

 few, but should be taken in hand by the nation at large. 



NOTES. 



Amongst the recent scientific missions undertaken by order 

 of the French Government are ; one by Prof. Viault, of Bor- 

 deaux, in the table-lands of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, to con- 

 tinue the investigations of the late M. Paul Bert into rarefied 

 air ; one by M. de Coubertin, Secretary of the Committee for 

 the Encouragement of Physical Exercises in Education in the 

 United States and Canada, to visit the Universities and Colleges, 

 to study the working of the various athletic associations fre- 

 quented by the young people of these countries ; one by M. 

 Jacques de Morgan, mining engineer, to explore those parts of 

 Asia Minor lying 1 ctween the south of the Caspian Sea, Arme- 

 nia, the Gulf of Alexandria, and Anti-Taurus (this mission 

 will occupy two years and three months) ; and one by M. 

 Candelier, to- Columbia, to make ethnographical researches and 

 collections for the State. 



Messrs. Longmans have made arrangements with Dr. 

 Nansen for the publication, both in London and New York, of 

 an account of his recent expedition across Greenland. The 

 book will be fully illustrated, and will probably be published in 

 the spring of next year. 



The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the British Pharmaceuti- 

 cal Conference was opened at the Durham University College 

 of Science, Newcastle, on the loth inst., when the President, 

 Mr. C. Umney, delivered the annual address. 



The Department of Botany, British Museum, has acquired 

 the collection of microscopic slides made by the late Prof, de 

 Bary. 



A CORREsroNDENT of the Daily Chronicle states that parti- 

 culars have reached Constantinople, of a volcanic eruption which 

 occurred some days ago in the province of Erzeroum, destroying 

 the village of Kantzorik, and the majority of its inhabitants. 

 Kantzorik was a little village of 215 inhabitants, i-ituated in the 

 Gaza of Tortoum, about 60 kilometres north of the city of 

 Erzeroum. The village nestled in a narrow fertile valley about 

 1600 metres above the level of the sea, on the slope of the 

 eastern mountains. Before the eruption the inhabitants were 

 startled by subterranean noises, and they noticed at the same 

 time that the springs on a mountain which stands at the eastern 

 end of the valley were dried up. Alarmed at these phenomena 

 they appealed to the nearest local authorities, and were advised at 

 once to evacuate the village. The warning for the majority was 

 too late. Towards midday, whilst the terrified peasants were 

 preparing for flight, the eruption came. The torrent rushed 

 down, bearing on its molten surface boulders and masses of 

 earth torn from the surface or belched from the heart of the 

 mountain. The whole village, with 136 persons, was engulfed 

 in the stream. 



It is reported from Japan that Viscount Ennomoto, the new 

 Minister of Education, is devoting special attention upon the 

 introduction of technical education into the primary schools of 

 the Empire, and that he has turned to Italy as a model. His 

 scheme is to include technical education in the curriculum of the 

 preparatory schools, and to give children technical training from 

 the outset. 



Mr. Bothamley, Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator in 

 the Chemical Department of the Yorkshire College, has been 

 unanimously elected President of the Photographic Convention 



of the United Kingdom for the meeting in 1890, which is to be- 

 held at Chester. 



The "Hand-book of Newcastle and District," compiled in 

 view of the meeting of the British Association there this year^ 

 consists of three parts, a third being on the geology of the district.. 

 The volumes are very neatly got up and well printed. The 

 general hand-book' is by the Rev. Dr. Collingwood Bruce, the 

 greatest living authority on the antiquities and history of the 

 district, who has succeeded in making a highly readable and in- 

 structive volume. In a short introduction he shows the immense 

 progress made by Newcastle since the last two visits of the 

 Association, and especially since the introduction of railways. 

 Dr. Bruce gives many reminiscences of the old life of Newcastle, 

 and interesting details as to its historical buildings, as well as its 

 modern institutions. In an appendix, brief descriptions are 

 given of the places of interest in the vicinity of Newcastle ar- 

 ranged in alphabetical order. The second volume is devoted to 

 the industries of Newcastle and the north-east coast, and is 

 edited by Mr. Wigham Richardson. Each section is written by 

 a specialist, and the whole is well illustrated by a fine series of 

 maps and diagrams. We have chapters on agriculture, by Mr. 

 Thomas Bell ; railways from the Tweed to the Tees, by Mr. W. 

 G. Laws ; the harbours of the north-east coast, by Mr. P. J. 

 Messent ; mining and quarrying, by Mr. J. Poland Anderson ^. 

 engineering, by Mr. W. Boyd ; shipbuilding, by Mr. J. A. 

 Rowe ; electricity, by the Hon. C. A. Parsons ; manufacture of 

 iron and steel, by Mr. C. Lowthian Bell; lead, by Mr. N. C. 

 Cookson ; copper, by Mr. George Gatherall ; antimony, by Mr. 

 N. C. Cookson ; zinc, by Mr. John Pattison ; aluminium, by Mr. 

 Curt Netto ; chemical manufactures, by Mr. T. W. Stuart ; gas- 

 works, by Mr. W. Hardie ; printing, by Mr. Sidney Reid ; 

 manufacture of paper, by Mr. W. H. Richardson ; flour milling, 

 by Mr. Edmund Procter ; leather manufacture, by Mr. D. 

 Richardson ; tanning, by Mr. G. Angus ; coachbuilding, by Mr. 

 J. Philipson ; earthenware, by Mr. H. Heath and Mr. C. T. 

 Maling ; photography, by Mr. Edwin Dodds ; carpeting, by 

 Mr. A. Henderson ; cement, by Mr. J. Watson ; the develop- 

 ment of the Portland cement industry, by Mr. J. L. Spoor ; 

 ropemaking, by Mr. R. Dixon ; the brewing trade, by Mr. T. 

 W. Lovihond ; tobacco, by Mr. J. Harvey ; with a concluding 

 section by the editor. The geology section is by Prof Lebour, 

 and is much above the average of similar hand-books. 



Dr. Rudolph Koenig, the well-known constructor of standard 

 acoustical apparatus in Paris, has just made a discovery of ex- 

 treme importance in the theory of music, the details of which 

 he will expound at the forthcoming meeting of the Naturforscher 

 at Heidelberg. This is an extension of Helmholtz's theory of 

 timbre to certain cases not represented in the elementary mathe- 

 matical theory, and corresponding to the actual case of the 

 timbres of certain musical instruments. The paper is certain to 

 give rise to discussion, and will be of interest to musicians, who 

 have never, as is notorious, taken kindly to Helmholtz's theory 

 in its original form. 



From an official summary of the proceedings at the German 

 Anthropological Congress, which met at Vienna last month, it 

 appears that after Prof. Ranke had read the year's report, in. 

 which the establishment of chairs of anthropology at German 

 Universities was specially mentioned, Prof Virchow read a 

 paper on the progress of anthropology in the last twenty years. 

 He thought in the next twenty years anthropologists would be 

 able to explain the connection of the various races and peoples 

 of Europe. Prof. Schaafhausen dealt with the present condition 

 of the study of crania for anthropological purposes, and Prof 

 Ranke with the position of the ears in different races. Dr. 

 Waldeyer described certain investigations of his into the placenta 

 in the human species and in apes, while Prof. Zuckerkandl spoke 



