April lo, 1890] 



NATURE 



545 



German papers announce the death of Dr. Karl Jacob Loewig, 

 Professor of Chemistry at the University of Breslau, Director of 

 the Chemical Laboratory, and author of many eminent works on 

 chemistry. He was born at Kreuznach on March 17, 1803, and 

 died at Breslau on March 27. 



The "Inspectors' Instructions" relating to the Code of 1890 

 have been issued this year with remarkable promptitude. The 

 document is one of great importance, and it is satisfactory that all 

 who are interested in popular education will have ample time to 

 study it before the various questions connected with the new 

 Code are discussed in Parliament, 



This week the National Union of Teachers has been holding 

 its 2 1 St Annual Conference at the Merchant Taylors' School, 

 London. The meetings began on Monday, when the President, 

 Mr. H. J. Walter, (delivered his inaugural address. Speaking 

 of the new Code, Mr. Walter said the teachers of the country 

 would accept and welcome it ; and although they reserved their 

 right to criticize the details freely, and unhesitatingly to state 

 that in many points the Code was capable of improvement, 

 "they would work loyally with the Education Department in 

 the endeavour to show such an improvement in the education of 

 the country that the public would be ready to listen with atten- 

 tion and respect when teachers made suggestions for further 

 changes and advance in the same direction." 



M. Gaston Bonnier h^s been elected President of the 

 Botanical Society of France for the year 1890, and MM. E. 

 Roze, A. Michel, J. Poisson, and J. Vallot, Vice-Presidents. 



The International Exhibition of Geographical, Commercial, 

 and Industrial Botany, proposed to be held at Antwerp, has 

 been postponed till next year. 



An International Exhibition of Horticulture, which will be 

 largely of a scientific character, will be held in Berlin from 

 April 25 to May 5. 



An Electro-technical Exhibition is to beheld at Frankfort-on- 

 the-Main next year. It will be divided into twelve sections. 



Some exhibits in the Science Department (under the direction 

 of the Rev. Dr. West and Mr. C. Carus- Wilson) of the Bourne- 

 mouth Industrial and Loan Exhibition, opened on the 7th 

 inst., are worthy of special notice. Among these are a collec- 

 tion of British and foreign oysters lent by the Poole Oyster - 

 fishing Company, and a collection of birds' eggs, for which Mr. 

 R. G. H. Gray has received a special prize. The first prize has 

 been awarded to Mr. E. H. V. Davies, who exhibits an inter- 

 esting collection of recent and fossil local shells. The various 

 stages in the process of developing photographs are illustrated 

 in a series exhibited by Mr. Jones. In the Geological Section, 

 large specimens of fluor-spar have been lent by Dr. West, who 

 also contributes a collection of Eocene fossils from the Lindon, 

 Hampshire, and Paris basins. Mr. C. Carus- Wilson shows a 

 case of remarkably well-preserved fossils of various geological 

 ages, including a gigantic shark's tooth {Carcharodon) from Rio ; 

 also, garnets in quartz, and samples of musical sands. Leaves 

 from the Bournemouth Beds are well represented by Mr. Ben- 

 nett's collection. In the Entomological Section, Mr. McRae's 

 collection of British Lepidoptera attracts much attention ; the 

 Rhopalocera and Macro- Heterocera are nearly all represented, 

 a large number having been bred by Mr. McRae from larvre 

 obtained in or near Bournemouth. A special prize has been 

 awarded to Mr. Harding for a large astronomical telescope con- 

 structed entirely by himself. The Exhibition will close on the 

 2 1st inst., when the prizes will be distributed by the Duchess of 

 Albany. 



The Royal Microscopical Society will hold its first evening 

 soiree in its new rooms, 20 Hanover Square, on Wednesday, 

 April 30, at 8 p.m. 



M. Leclerc I)U Saislon has been appointed to a Professor- 

 ship of Botany at Toulouse, and is succeeded in his post of 

 assistant naturalist to the chair of Organography and Vegetable 

 Physiology at the Museum of Natural History at Paris, by M 

 Morot. 



Dr. LunwiG Klein has been appointed Professor of Botany 

 in the University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau. 



M. Paul Maury has been attached to the Geographical Ex- 

 ploring Commission of the Mexican Republic in the capacity of 

 botanist, and is about lo depart for Mexico on a botanical 

 expedition. 



The plans of the Danish expedition to the east coast of 

 Greenland are now complete. Lieut. Ryder will command a 

 party of nine, and during next summer, as soon as the ice per- 

 mits, they will go by steamer to the east coast, and then devote 

 two years to the investigation of the district between lat. N. 

 66° and 73°. At the end of that time they will be fetched by 

 the steamer from Denmark. 



The French Society "Scientia" informs its members that its. 

 next dinner, on Apiil 30, will be presided over by M. C. 

 Richet and by M. de Lacaze-Duthiers, in whose honour the 

 dinner is to be given. The last dinner was given in honour of 

 Francis Darwin. 



At the general monthly meeting of the Royal Institution^ 

 on April 7, the special thanks of the members were returned for 

 the following donations to the fund for the promotion of experi- 

 mental research : Mr. Ludwig Mond, ;^ioo; Mr. Lachlan M. 

 Rate, ;^5o. 



At the Royal Institution the Hon. George C. Brodrick wilt 

 begin a course of three lectures, on the place of Oxford Uni- 

 versity in English history, on Tuesday (April 15); Prof. C. V. 

 Boys will begin a course of three lectures, on the heat of the 

 moon and stars, on Thursday (April 17); and Captain Abney 

 will begin a course of three lectures, on colour and its chemical' 

 action, on Saturday (April 19). The evening meetings will be 

 resumed on Friday (April 18), when Sir Frederick BramwelF 

 will give a discourse on welding by electricity. 



The Marlborough College Natural History Society, according 

 to its latest Report, is in a most flourishing condition. The 

 year 1889 was for the Society "one of continued prosperity and 

 progress." On April 9, 1889, the Society completed its 

 twenty-fifth year, and the members afterwards commemorated 

 the occasion by an excursion to Stonehenge. 



Dr. vo.n Daxckelman has contributed to Mitllieiluiigcnaus- 

 den detitschen Scliutzgcbieteu, vol. iii., an important paper on the 

 climate of German Togoland, and of the neighbouring districts 

 of the Gold and Slave Coasts. The observations are drawn from, 

 all available sources, from those first made by Dr. Isert at the 

 then Danish settlements in 1783-85, down to the most recent 

 observations by English, French, and German observers. A 

 good deal of information exists, comparatively speaking, from 

 this part of West Africa, and among the best of the observa- 

 tions are those made in 1888-89 by the German oflicials at 

 Bismarckburg (lat. 8" 12' N., long, o' 34' E.), at an altitude of 

 about 2330 feet above the sea. A comparison of the tables- 

 given for the various colonies shows that the highest air pressure 

 occurs in July and August, and the lowest in February and 

 March. The monthly range is small, amounting to less than 

 0"2 inch. Temperature varies considerably with the position' 

 relatively to the coast. While at Akassa, on the coast, the 

 mean daily range is only about lo\ at Bismarckburg it is double 

 that amount. And during the h)t season the range is double 

 what it is in the cool season. Rainfall also varies with position 

 relatively to the coast. The rainy seasons are March to Juncy 



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