422 



NATURE '^ 



[March 6, 1879 



land bibliography and cartography, which have been 

 compiled with much care, will be found very useful at the 

 present time, but it is to be regretted, perhaps, that a map 

 of the country was not added. The geographical notes 

 include accounts of M. Oshanin's further explorations in 

 the Pamir, and of the Loochoo Islands. There is also an 

 obituary notice of M, Nicholas de Khanikoff. 



The Archbishop of Algiers has received a detailed 

 journal of the experiences of the French missionary expe- 

 dition on its way to Albert and Victoria Nyanza, and 

 Lake Tanganyika, which he has promised to communi- 

 cate shortly to Les Missions Catholiqttes. When pub- 

 lished in that periodical, it will be accompanied by a map 

 of Equatorial Africa, prepared from original sources of 

 information by Pere Charmetant, under whose auspices 

 the expedition started from the east coast. 



At the last meeting of the Society of Commercial 

 Geography at Paris, M. Reclus communicated his report 

 on the exploration of the Isthmus of Darien, conducted 

 under the orders of Lieut. Wyse. 



In the Bulletin of the Lyons Geographical Society, 

 which has just been issued, M. Luciano Cordeiro, the 

 learned Secretary of the Lisbon Geographical Society, 

 contributes a second instalment of his papers on the first 

 explorations of Central Africa, and the Portuguese 

 doctrine of African hydrography in the sixteenth century. 



News has lately been received by the German African 

 Society from Dr. Buchner, a traveller recently sent out 

 to West Africa. He proposed to leave Loanda towards 

 the end of December for Dondo, on the Quanza, where 

 Major Mechow is delayed by illness. 



The just received Boletin of the Madrid Geographical 

 Society for October last contains a lecture by D. Francisco 

 de Paula Arrelaga, on the physical geography of the sea. 

 Also papers on Afghanistan, on Bulgaria, and other 

 eastern countries by Sr. D. Saturnino Gim^nez, and an 

 account of a journey to Morocco in 1800 by a Spanish 

 Commission. 



The enterprise of Mr, James Gordon Bennett in pre- 

 paring two vessels for arctic exploration, the one to 

 proceed by way of Spitzbergen and the other by Behring 

 Straits, is already well known to our readers. The 

 siQdcnxtr Jeannette has been assigned to the Behring Straits' 

 service, and is, we understand, already in San Francisco. 

 A bill has been introduced into Congress by Mr. Wood 

 authorising the Secretary of the Navy to accept this 

 vessel and take charge of her. The bill provides that it 

 is to be fitted up with any material on hand, and authority 

 is given to enlist the necessary crew and to provide the 

 naval officers ; and the expense, at least the pay of the 

 men, will be subsequently refunded by Mr. Bennett. It 

 is not improbable that this vessel will be made useful in 

 the search for and relief of the Vega, Prof. Nordenskj old's 

 steamer. 



NOTES 



We announce with the greatest regret the sad news, just 

 received by telegraph, of the death of Prof. W. K. Clifford at 

 Madeira. We can do no more this week than barely announce 

 this national loss. 



The Emperor of Austria has bestowed upon Dr. Meyer, the 

 director of the Royal Zoological Museum of Dresden, the well- 

 known New Guinea traveller, the order of the Iron Crown, 



The death is announced at Berlin of the well-known chemist, 

 Prof. Sonnenschein. He had reached the'age of sixty-two. 



The Council of the Society of Arts have appointed Mr. H. 

 Trueman Wood, Secretary, in the place of the late Mr. P. Le 

 Neve Foster. 



According to the Kreuz Zeihing, Prof. Virchow intends, on 

 the close of the ciunrent semester, to accept an invitation of Dr. 

 Schliemann to join him in some excavations at Troy. 



The Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce 



offers a reward of 3,000 lire to the author of the most complete 

 and best monographic essay on the structure, the vital functions, 

 and the diseases of the acid fruits, or species and varieties of 

 the genus Citrus and kindred genera, provided that the said 

 work, by a sufficient collection of original observations and ex- 

 periments, should succeed in fiu-nishing an important addition 

 to the present knowledge concerning such subjects, and thereby 

 supply a scientific criterion for the improvement of the cultiva- 

 tion of these acid fruits and for the cure of their diseases. The 

 date for sending in the works competing for the said prize is 

 fixed for the end of May, 1881, Essays by Italians, or by 

 foreigners written in Italian, are admissible to the competition ; 

 but if written in another language they must be accompanied by 

 an Italian translation. The essays sent in for competition are 

 to he sent to the Ministry of Agricultiu-e, Industry, and Com- 

 merce, with the superscription, " Competition for the Prizes for 

 the best Essay on the genus Citrus" and they must be distin- 

 guished by a motto, to be given also in a sealed cover contain- 

 ing the name and address of the author. 



It is intended to make a special effort to issue the Report 01 

 the Sheffield Meeting of the British Association at an early date 

 after the meeting. To enable this to be done the Council 

 request that all Reports and Abstracts of all Papers intended to 

 be read in the Sections, may be sent to the Assistant- Secretary 

 not later than July 15, in order that, if approved of by the 

 Organising Committees, they may be put in type before the 

 Meeting. Authors who comply with this request, and whose 

 Papers are accepted, will be furnished before the IMeeting with 

 printed copies of their Reports or Abstracts. No Report, Paper, 

 or Abstract can be inserted in the volume unless it is in the 

 Assistant Secretary's hands before the conclusion oj the Meeting. 



Dr. Bottomley has called the attention of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society to an interesting copy of the 

 " Principia " of Newton. In addition to being an impression of the 

 first edition, it contains the autograph of Edmund Halley. It 

 was a present from Halley to the Abbot Nazarl. Nazari was 

 the editor of a scientific journal at Rome from 1668 to 1681. 

 The following is the entry in Halley's hand-wTiting : — 

 lUustrissimo Dno 

 Dro Abbati Nazario 

 Romse humillime offert 

 Edm. Halley. 

 Subsequently the book was in the possession of Dr. Dalton, and 

 its value is enhanced by his autograph. 



M. Stephan has been elected a Corresponding Member in 

 the Astronomical Section of the Paris Academy, in place of the 

 late Dr. Hansen, of Gotha. 



We have received one or two letters on the subject of migia- 

 tion of birds, referred to in Col. Donnelly's letter in Nature, 

 vol. xix. p, 289. Mr, H. Cecil thinks that the most hopeful way 

 of carrying out Col. Donnelly's proposal would be through oar 

 consuls. " If a tabular sheet, noting in separate columns the 

 points to observe — drawn up, say, by Mr. A. R. Wallace — were 

 printed on thin paper and transmitted to our consuls abroad, 

 with a request that they would fill them up and remit them to 

 Nature, my impression is that few would decline. In cases 

 where the consul himself had not the inclination or the time 

 accurately to fill in the paper, he could generally command the 

 services of some one who could. This need in no way interfere 

 with the independent notes of \\feich your correspondent speaks." 

 Mr, Cecil thinks that any funds required could easily be got by 

 subscription, Mr, Allen Harker, of Gloucester, thinks that ri 

 student of migration has rather an 'emlarras de richesse to con- 

 tend with than a want of data. " The researches of Midden- 

 dorf," he writes, " or the admirable work of Dr. Palmen, ' Om 

 foglarnes flyttningsvager,' reviewed in Nature, vol. xv. 

 p. 465, would furnish your correspondent with much of the 



