Feb. 20, 1879] 



NATURE 



375 



A Royal Commission, consisting of Mr. Warington W. 

 Smyth, F.R.S,, Sir George Elliot, M.P., Mr. F. A. Abel, 

 C.B., Mr. Thomas Bmrt, M.P., Mr. Robert Bellamy Clifton, 

 F.R.S. , Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S. , Mr. Lindsay Wood, and Mr. 

 William Thomas Lewis, has been appointed for the purpose of 

 inquiring and reporting whether, with respect to the influence of 

 fluctuations of atmospheric pressure upon the issue of fire-damp 

 from coal, to the adoption and efficient application of trust- 

 vrorthy indicators of the presence of fire-damp, and generally to 

 systematic obser\ation of the air in mines, to improved methods 

 of ventilation and illumination, to the emplojinent of explosive 

 agents in the getting of minerals, and to other partictilars relat- 

 ing to mines and mining operations, the resources of science 

 furnish any practicable expedients that are not now in use and 

 are calculated to prevent the occurrence of accidents or limit 

 their disastrous consequences. 



Mr.R. McLachlan, F.R.S., writes us that he is informed from 

 two independent sources that Italy has lost its head_from dread of 

 the visitation of the Phylloxera. The restrictions on the impor- 

 tation of plants of any kind whatever, and from any quarter, are 

 most rigid. A consignment of the newly -discovered gigantic 

 Aroid, from Sumatra, received in Genoa, was subjected to 

 formalities and delays in permission to be delivered, of a nature 

 that seriously compromised the welfare of the tubers. In some 

 places gentlemen must dispense with the ordinarj' floral decora- 

 tions in their buttonholes. On the French frontier no one is 

 allowed, to gather a bouquet of wild flowers on foreign soil and 

 take them acro.-s the border, for fear that the much-dreaded pest 

 should exist in it. All scientific reasoning seems to be at an end 

 in the minds of the Italian Government officials. But let us not 

 forget that in 1877 we ourselves were almost in the same condi- 

 tion, owing to the panic spread among us with regard to the 

 Colorado beetle. A knowledge of the rudiments of phytological 

 entomology appears to be so universally deficient that it only 

 requires some agitator to raise a panic in order to bring about 

 the most absiurd restrictive enactions. No one can blame the 

 Italians for endeavouring by all means in their power to prevent 

 the introduction of the Phylloxera into their vineyards ; but they 

 might show a little common-sense discrimination. A restriction 

 on the importation of foreign vines would be sensible enough, 

 and they might go further, and prohibit the discharge of earth- 

 ballast taken in by vessels at ports in districts known to be 

 infected. To stop the introduction of all v^etables and flowers 

 is quite unnecessary. 



On January 4, at il P.M., and on the following day at 9 a.m. 

 a strong earthquake was felt at Maikop (Russia) ; there were 

 five shocks, at intervals of about fifteen minutes. 



The installation of objects sent in for the Anthropological Exhi- 

 bition at Moscow will begin in the end of March. The interesting 

 collections from Samarcand have already arrived, as well as very 

 interesting objects sent by the East Siberian branch of the 

 Russian Geographical Society. Those of stone implements and 

 of quaternary mammals especially draw the attention of the 

 organising committee, as well as several numismatic collections. 



We notice a comm.unication made by M. Kontkevitch, at the 

 last meeting of the St. Petersburg Mineralogical Society, on the 

 recently explored iron mines in the provinces of Kherson, Ekate- 

 linoslav, and Taurida. At the confluence of the Saksagon and 

 Ingulda rivers there are no less than forty layers of iron from 

 35 to 200 feet thick and several miles wide, containing 58 to 70 

 per cent, of iron, and representing a store of two and a half 

 milliard cwts. of iron. 



The Aosta sec.ion of the Italian Alpine Club proposes to 

 celebrate this year the centenary of Saussnre's travels in the 

 Alps, which opened up quite a new world for science and for 



travellers. In 1779 he stayed for the first time in the Valley 

 of Annecy, and the Club proposes to put a commemorative 

 marble plate on the house he inhabited in the \-illage of 

 Dolonne, near Courmayeur. An inscription will probably be 

 placed also on the Grammont Mountain, whence Saussiure 

 made his famous observations on Mont Blanc, the first ascent 

 of which he made in 1787. 



The Indian Government Gazette, we learn from the Times of 

 India, contains papers ' on the proposed Presidency Botanic 

 Gardens, including a Government minute and the report of the 

 Committee. The Committee's consideration was invited to the 

 question whether Pima or Bombay should be chosen as the place 

 for the principal botanic garden of the Presidency. They decided 

 in favour of Ganesh Khind, They recommend, however, that 

 a small branch garden, consisting of four or five acres, be esta- 

 blished in Bombay, and that the Grant College compound be 

 selected for the purpose. The Government highly approved of 

 all the recommendations, which will be carried out whenever 

 financial means may permit. The main scientific garden, which 

 will embrace about forty acres, is to be laid out in the irregular 

 picturesque style, with special reference to landscape effect, and 

 the planting of the ground will be done gradually and without 

 any undue haste. It may be mentioned here that the chief re- 

 sources of the garden are to be devoted to the bringing together of 

 the indigenous plants of Western India, and until this is satisfac- 

 torily accomplished no pains will be taken, except in special 

 cases, to introduce foreign plants. An extraordinary expendi- 

 ture of Rs. 22,037 will have to be incurred for the purpose of 

 constructing roads and footpaths, excavating a ground, erecting 

 houses and sheds, providing iron piping, &c., for water supply, 

 fitting up rooms for the herbarium, library, and cl.ass-room, and 

 for the purchase of botanical books and diagrams. The esti- 

 mated annual expenditure is, in round numbers, Rs. i2,oco. 



At the last meeting of the French Geographical Society a 

 letter was read from the Abbe Desgodins, dated Yerkalo, 

 August 27, 1878, in which he states that, contrary to the common 

 assertion which represents the sheep as the beast of burden most 

 tised in Thibet, this function belongs in preference to the yak 

 {Bos grussiens) ; the mule, as=:, and horse are also made use of. 

 The sheep, he says, is only employed as a beast of burden at one 

 period, viz., when the parties of Thibetans quit the high plateaux 

 to descend into the valleys at the approach of winter. The 

 Buddhist pilgrims are sometimes to be met with sheep and goats 

 carrying their baggage, but, as the Abbe Desgodins remarks* 

 there is a wide difference between that and representing the sheep 

 as the beast of burden of Thibet. 



The first fascicule of the sixth volume of the " Repertorium 

 fiir Meteorologie," published by the Russian Central Physical 

 Observatory, contains a memoir, by Prof. Wild, on the tempera- 

 ture of the soil at St. Petersburg and Nukus (Amu-darya) ; 

 geographical, magnetic, and hypsometric observations, by M. 

 Fritsche, made during his journeys from St. Petersburg to Peking 

 in 1866 and 1877 ; photochemical measurements of the intensity 

 of daylight in St. Petersburg, by M. Stelling ; determinations of 

 the coefficients of anemometers, and magnetic obser\'ations on 

 the Amu-darya, by the late M. Dorandt ; and researches, by M. 

 Frolich, into the temperature of space. 



The German St. Pdersburger Zeitiing states that the cost of 

 the bronze monument to be erected at Dorpat, in memory of 

 Carl Ernst von Baer, is estimated at 15,000 roubles (about 

 2,300/,), and solicits subscriptions towards this sum. 



The use of a paper dome for an astronomical observatory is a 

 novelty in modem architecture, although, according to Prof. 

 Greene, of Troy, U.S., under whose supervision this has been 

 constructed, it promises to answer a satisfactory purpose. The 



