48 



NATURE 



[May 9, 1878 



comparison stage, made by Mr. A. Hilger. A dynamo-electric 

 machine, speed 800 revglutions, power 175 H.P. required to 

 work it, effect 1,200 candles' light, exhibited by Messrs. 

 Siemens Bros. The telephone harp, with visible records of 

 sound through vacuum tubes, exhibited by Mr. F. A. Gowei-. 

 Apparatus for showing figures in light from vibrations caused by 

 sound, exhibited by Mr. Henry Edmunds. A metallic thermo- 

 meter, invented by Mr. H. Bessemer ; and apparatus for the 

 automatic registration of the number of hours of sunlight, made 

 for Kew Observatory, exhibited by Mr. J. Browning. A 

 phoneidoscope, an instrument for observing the coloured figures 

 reflected from liquid filters under the action of sonorous vibra- 

 tions, made and exhibited by Tisley and Co. Composite 

 portraits, made by combining the likenesses of different persons 

 into a single resultant figure : (i) optically, {2) photographically, 

 exhibited by Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S. ; we hope to publish 

 a paper on the subject next week. We need not say that the 

 phonograph in operation, under the superintendence of Mr. 

 Preece, was specially attractive, and that Winkler's Lunar 

 Landscape, and the beautiful photographs and paintings exhi- 

 bited, lent a delightful variety to the collection. 



This fine spring must render folks eager for their summer 

 holidays, and many a plan must be thought over under its influ- 

 ence. Mr. Marshall Hall suggests that if one or two points 

 and dates were fixed as rendezvous, mineralogists, geologists, 

 botanists, entomologists, ei hoc genus omne, might be very likely 

 to accumulate and compare notes. For one such point Mr. Hall 

 suggests the Hotel Bauer, at Sien-e in the Valais, which can be 

 reached in two day from London, vid Paris, Pontarlier, Vallorbe, 

 Lausanne, &c. For examination of the Lotchenthal and the 

 Val d'Anniviers this would be a good place to start from, whilst 

 travellers having mountain business could go about it north to 

 the Oberland and south to the Pennine Alps. " If any other man 

 knoweth a better place let him impart." 



Any one who has seen the graceful snout of a salmon or a 

 trout, especially if he has looked upon it after an hour's exciting 

 spin on a river or Highland loch, will be filled with disgust and, 

 if an angler, with grief, on beholding the horrible head of a 

 smolt figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle of May 4. It is posi- 

 tively loathsome. And this is the effect of the disease which 

 has been proving so destructive to the helpless creatures in some 

 of the Northern rivers, especially the Esk, Eden, Kent, and 

 even the Tweed we believe. Mr. Worthington Smith has been 

 making some inquiries into the nature of this disease which is 

 killing not only salmon and trout, but eels, flounders, and other 

 fish. He finds it to be a fungus {Saprolegnia ferax), which 

 attacks mainly the head, tail, and fins. The scales appear to be 

 covered with a fine white cottony bloom, which at length blinds 

 the fish, envelops the gills, or even entirely closes the gills and 

 mouth. Mr. Smith thinks the reason for the extraordinary 

 abundance of the fungus this year is the unusual mildness of the 

 winter. It seems only to attack the fish in fresh water, those in 

 the estuaries escaping. We trust for the sake of our food 

 supplies as well as on account of our genial friends the anglers, 

 not to mention the poor fish themselves, that some means will 

 be found of preventing the spread of the disease. 



Prof. Wiedersheim, of Freiberg University, writes us that 

 through the kindness of Prof. Rutimeyer, he is in a position to 

 describe a Labyrinthodont fi'om the Trias, belonging to the 

 palaeontological collection at Basel. While hitherto nothing but 

 the skull and some of the bony scales from the epidermis have 

 been known, this specimen is completely preserved, whereby we 

 obtain for the first time a full and clear insight into the organisa- 

 tion of the entire skeleton of this remarkable amphibian. But not 

 only the skeleton with head, vertebral column, the shoulder and 

 pelvis, down to the last phalanges of the fingers, are on view at 

 the museum at Basel, but also a fine cast of the cranium and the 



spine, by which the extremely-low organisation of the central 

 nervous system of these animals is proved. Prof. Wiedersheim 

 will publish a minute description of the remains in the Reports 

 of the Swiss Paloeontological Society. 



At the close of 1877 the amount subscribed for a statue to 

 Linnreus was 44,276 Swedish crowns. This sum being insuffi- 

 cient, further contributions were obtained in Stockholm of 

 30,000 crowns, and the municipality of that city has undertaken 

 to defray the expense of the pedestal and of the erection of the 

 statue. The total sum available is estimated at 100,000 crowns 

 (5. 500/). 



The Berlin Ethnographical Museum has lately been enriched 

 by a valuable collection of all the articles used by the two tribes 

 of the Ostiacs and Samojedes in North Siberia. These objects 

 were collected by Dr. Finsch during his voyage in 1876, and will 

 soon possess no slight value, as the peculiarities of these people 

 are rapidly vanishing in contact with Russian civilisation. 



Prof, von Siebold, one of the oldest and best known of 

 German zoologists, celebrated last week in Munich the fiftieth 

 anniversary of his reception of the doctoi-'s degree. The King 

 of Bavaria presented him, on the occasion, with the cross of the 

 Order of St. Michael; deputations were sent by the Munich 

 University and Academy of Sciences, and greetings were sent 

 by numerous foreign universities and societies. 



The Berlin Royal Academy of Sciences has granted the sum 

 of 400 marks (20/.) to Dr. Ludwig Graff, Professor of Zoology 

 at the Forest- Academy of Aschaffenburg, for the completion of 

 his "Monograph of Turbellaria.^^ Dr. Graff is now at work 

 at the Zoological Station of Naples. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain the Annual Report of the Committee of Visitors for the 

 year 1877, testifying to the continued prosperity and efficient 

 management of the Institution was read and adopted. During 

 the last twenty-five years the number of members paying annually 

 (five guineas) has increased from 344 to 544. The real and 

 funded property now amounts to above 84,500/., entirely derived 

 from the contributions and donations of the members. Forty-one 

 new members paid their admission fees in 1877. The principal 

 officers were-re-elected. 



At a special general meeting of the Birmingham Natural 

 History and Microscopical Society, held on the 30th ult., Dr. 

 Cobbold, F.R.S. , was unanimously elected an honorary vice- 

 president of the Society. 



M. F. SoENSON has presented to the Swedish Academy the 

 results of his experiments on the electric conductivity of solu- 

 tions of various alums. These show that in all cases the con- 

 ductivity increases directly with the concentration of the solution, 

 and that while less intense than in solutions of the simple alka- 

 line sulphates, it is always more intense than in solutions of 

 aluminium sulphate. The green modification of chrome-alum 

 possesses a greater conductivity than the red variety. 



The French Association for the Progress of Sciences is pre- 

 paring for its next session, which will take place on August 28 

 at Paris. The Bureau has been completed and is composed as 

 follows : — President, M. Fremy, Professor of Chemistry at the 

 Polytechnic School and Museum of Natural History; Vice-presi- 

 dent, M. Bardoux, the Minister of Public Instruction; Secretary 

 M. Perrier, of the staff, Dii-ector of the Ordnance Survey, Member 

 of the Bureau des Longitudes] and Council of, the Observatoiy ; 

 Vice-secretaiy, M. Comte Saporta, Correspondent of the Insti- 

 tute ; Treasurer, M. Masson, the scientific publisher ; Secretary 

 of the Council, M. Gariel, Engineer of Ponts et Chaussees. The 

 session will take place at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a very exten- 



